{"id":108024,"date":"2020-10-25T16:48:54","date_gmt":"2020-10-25T23:48:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=108024"},"modified":"2020-10-25T16:48:54","modified_gmt":"2020-10-25T23:48:54","slug":"boosting-the-productivity-and-competitiveness-of-the-garment-industry-in-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2020\/10\/25\/boosting-the-productivity-and-competitiveness-of-the-garment-industry-in-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"BOOSTING THE PRODUCTIVITY AND COMPETITIVENESS OF THE GARMENT INDUSTRY IN SRI LANKA"},"content":{"rendered":"

BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

When\nevaluates the export industry structure of Sri Lanka, we would find that the\nindustry has been instigated changes in the market structure since the early\n1960s with the results of foreign advice as well as findings of domestic\nresearches. This changing trend has been continually incorporating new\nindustries into the sector. The remarkable advice on the diversification of the\nexport industry was logically and practically given by Prof.Dudley Seers in the\nlate i960s, and the garment industry emerged as a vital contributor to the\nmarket structure. Garments like food are fundamental needs of humans and the\nassociated economic activities have economic value like in the food industry.  The garment industry remained on a subsistence\nlevel that spread all over the country before the 1970s and many people engaged\nin making garments for employment as a way of living. The industry gained a\nhigher commercial value and attracted a distinguishable pace in the export\nindustry resulting in the changes in economic strategies in 1978.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traditionally,\nthe aggregate export industry has been added by a higher level of contribution from\nthe plantation industry, and with the effort of export diversification in the\nlate 1960s, the garment industry gained a potential place of foreign exchange\nearnings and providing employment, especially for the female workforce through\nthe initiation of free trade and investment zones pursuing the operation of\nexport zones such as St. Cruse in India and the Philippines. The effective\nmechanization and changes in the technology of the sewing industry and\nabandoning of labour-intensive industrial strategy in developed countries\nboosted the garment industry and the changes of consumer attitudes in the\nmodernization process that animated developing patterns and fashions to attract\nthe young generation and accelerated private investments in the garment\nindustry.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nconcept of exporting zones offered tax holidays and relaxation of exchange\ncontrol regulation for the import of materials from overseas for the garment\nindustry, encouraged foreign investors, and welcomed investors from developed\ncountries to the industry after the cold war. The international experience\nbespeaks that many labour-intensive industrial firms moved from developed\ncountries to developing countries on the fact that loosening international\ncompetitiveness and importing garment products to developed countries from\ndeveloping countries such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Taiwan, Thailand, China,\nand India.         <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since\nthe economic policy changes in 1978, the garment industry has taken a prominent\nplace in the export equation and the industry has been a crucial contributor to\nthe employment of rural people (especially female) and foreign exchange earnings\nin the country for more than 40 years. Expanding tourism services further\nstimulated investments in the industry. \nIt seems that economic policymakers during the past forty years have\nbeen ignoring the productivity improvement and competitiveness in the garment\nindustry, and politicians in the government are interested in the garment\nindustry that has been securing vote-based promoting investments in apparel\nproductions. However, they did not concern with the key factors such as\nproductivity enhancement, improvement of international competitiveness, and\nmany factors related to the apparel industry. It has been a cheerful field on\nemployment opportunities and investment opportunities for political donors with\na higher rate of return. It has been a lower cost for investors as the banking\nsystem supported than providing credits and other supports such as import and\nexport facilities.  The other vital\nreflection in investment pattern was many medium and large-scale investors in\nfashion and store business in developed countries engaged in investment fashion\nproducts making in developing countries and the policy-makers in Sri Lanka\neither not understand the trend or unaware of the trend in the market.\nInvestors exports top quality products to developed countries and medium\nquality to the Middle East and rejected and lower quality products to the third\nworld.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When\nanalysing the management of the apparel industry in Sri Lanka it reveals that\nproductivity enhancement and the improvement of international competitiveness are\nbeing ignored by entrepreneurs as well as government policy-makers who need\nconcentrating on the following points. \nUnder the leadership of president Mr. Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the government\nneeds to direct the industry to enhance productivity and international\ncompetitiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  • The major consideration\nshould be reducing the dependency on the import of input to the industry. In\nthis area, the import of clothing materials, sewing threads, sewing machines,\ngarment buttons, zips, machine parts should massively reduce until they are\ndomestically produced and ensure the quality of products. The cost of apparel\nproduction could be reduced by 30% if the import of input reduces massively improving\nproduct quality and making attractive input domestically. The production cost\nof input could be massively reduced by adapting Japanese style management\nstrategy that establishes groups of companies for various purposes such as\nmajor products and subsidiaries for input production, marketing quality\ncontrol, financing, and many other activities. \nThis is not a simple task.  If Sri\nLanka has the technology, knowledge, and skills to produce many sophisticated\nitems related to domestically producing input for the garment industry, the\nproductivity of the industry could be massively improved. it is regret to note\nthat depending on imports of inputs for the apparel industry is the major\nfactor to reduce the productivity and competitiveness of the industry. The\nproduct quality of the apparel industry is entirely based on the quality of\nmaterials with attractive fabric and lower-cost production of them.<\/li>
  • The domestic production\nof yarn for producing quality and attractive materials would be key factors for\nenhancing productivity in the industry. \nThe University of Moratuwa had a division for research, development, and\ntraining related to the garment industry, and it seems that the university has\nfailed to make innovation in this field. The university has an opportunity to\ngain supports from China that is a giant in the industry.<\/li>
  • The garment industry has\nfailed to develop attractive and marketable patterns and fashions. The\neconomic-policy makers need to establish a garment research institute, and need\nto monitor market changes in the world considering the changes in patterns and\nfashion worldwide, and promote innovation.  The patterns and fashion should competitively\n(lower cost, attractive) produce attractive products to kids, young people,\nfemales, elders, and many others.<\/li>
  • International promoting\nand marketing of products and quickly changing the patterns and fashion support\nto attract the market in developed countries. It seems that Bangladesh, China,\nand many other developing countries invaded larger supermarkets in developed\ncountries based on major factors such as the quality of products, attractive\nstyle of consumers, and many other factors. \n<\/li>
  • Performing industry\nanalysis should focus on developing industry averages and comparative analysis\nof individual organizations within the industry. If the government strict\nwithout exceptions on this matter firms in the industry could be classified to\ndevelop, maintain, and shrink.  <\/li>
  • Garment factories in Sri\nLanka have accountants but they don\u2019t economic analysts with mathematics\nknowledge to perform industry analysis and monitor policy development, policy\nmonitoring, and remedial management. There are many graduates from universities\nin the country, why they don\u2019t use for these tasks.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n

    The\nbehavior of stupid people in Sri Lanka has forced to class female employees in\nthe garment industry and the brandix corona case showed company executives too\nattempted to insult female employees of the company by commenting on the behavior\nof female employees. They were purely personal matters of employees and this\nsituation could be changed by the earning level of employees lifting to the\ninternational level. For example, the average monthly wage for a garment\nfactory employee increases to the US $ 300 or more, and this situation could\neasily be changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The\nindustry management needs to identify the stages of the industry and how the\nvalue is added to the final production. \nThis information is vital to design a high value-adding to the economy.\nIf policymakers developed policies to gain high value from the industry Sri\nLanka could gain the annual US $ 25bilion and gain a higher rate of share in\nthe garment export market.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    BY EDWARD THEOPHILUS When evaluates the export industry structure of Sri Lanka, we would find that the industry has been instigated changes in the market structure since the early 1960s with the results of foreign advice as well as findings of domestic researches. This changing trend has been continually incorporating new industries into the sector. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108024","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-edward-theophilus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108024","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108024"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108024\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108024"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108024"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108024"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}