Textile and Garment sector is expanding rapidly, with the number of industries more than doubling and playing huge role in boosting the country's light industry, and in transforming the economy, according to Ministry of Industry.
Talking to The Ethiopian Herald, Zerihun Abebe, Director of Textile and Apparel Research, Monitoring and Support with Ministry of Industry, stated that the country's textile and garment sector is in an upward trajectory with the number of industries has now reached more than 200 in few years time.
The trend shows that the sector is in the right journey to become the leading sector in Africa and make the country's vision of becoming continental textile hub in the coming years a reality, he added.
According to a recent government data, Ethiopia's textile and apparel industry has grown at an average rate of 51 percent, and more than 65 textile investment projects have been licensed for foreign investors in the last five to six years.
Zerihun explained that the expansion and development of industrial parks in various core areas of the country, developing technological adoption and industrial culture in the industry along with attractive investment incentives are helping the sector's growth.
Textile is considered important for technologically less advanced developing countries as it enables them to exploit their abundant labor force and cover for their lack of capital.
On this context, the Director claimed as the core of the country's light industry, the textile has been playing a pivotal role in facilitating structural transformation by accumulating capital that would enable the country to focus on capital-intensive heavy industries in the future.
The sector is also working on solving issues related to raw materials, namely cotton, in a bid to increase productivity and global competitiveness.
"We didn't use to have a road-map to strategize cotton development, but we have now formulated a 15 year road-map with time-frame that would increase productivity, direct how the sector can be assisted and facilitated," he remarked.
Further explaining, the Director noted that the road-map in general provides a set of solution in identifying and solving bottlenecks in cotton production, and a way to interlink with the pertinent stakeholders, including agriculture extension experts. It will also contribute to increase the cotton field coverage, and ultimately the cotton production of the country.
"Obviously, upping the quality and production of cotton will have a positive effect on the textile and garment sector."
Bantihun Gessese, Director of Communications at Ethiopian Textiles Industry Development Institute (ETIDI), for his part opined that the sector has been elevated from a collection of very few private factories some into a park industry in a few odd years as a result of the works done in technology transfer and other endeavors.
He indicated that the Institute undertakes various programs to facilitate skill and knowledge transfer within the sector, including a twining arrangement, where countries and higher education institutions with huge textile experiences provide various training opportunities for Ethiopians.
There are also other domestic endeavors initiated to shore-up skill development. One of which is the increase in the number of higher education institutions that give courses in textile development from one to six, Bantihun.
As a result of such skill transfer programs, the country now boasts capable top managers, supervisors and professionals that are elevating the sector's productivity and competitiveness, and hence foreign currency earning.
"The country has earned 68.5 million USD from the sector in the first 8 months of the current fiscal year, whilst creating 90,000 jobs."
