|
ATHI RIVER, Kenya, March 24 (Xinhua) -- Kenya has opened its first undergarment production facility to ramp up production to the attractive global market.
Hela Clothing, a 6 million U.S. dollar investment, located in Athi River, about 30 km east of Nairobi, has exported 1.5 million dollars worth of undergarment in six months for Calvin Klein, Victoria Secrets and other licensed brands owned by U.S. clothing conglomerate Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation (PVH Corp).
Speaking during a textile and apparel stakeholders meeting, Industry, Trade and Investment Cabinet Secretary Adan Mohamed said the government has partnered with Kenya's textile and apparel sector to serve the local market with locally produced textile in line with enforcing the "Buy Kenya, Build Kenya" policy.
"Kenyans will buy export quality wear for as low as between 1-6 dollars through a discounted clothing fair set for next week in Nairobi and other major cities throughout the year," Mohamed said.
He said the facility portends good news for the sector at a time when the textile and apparel industry globally expects a tougher year due to uncertainties of the global economy.
"Their export target of 50 million dollars worth of intimate goods to the United States and Europe in 2017 is representative of the type of new investments we encourage. That the company will be employing 5,500 workers by 2018 is the direct effect of our efforts to spur industrialization," Mohamed said.
The Export Processing Zones have hugely contributed to the industrialization agenda in fiscal terms with the annual wages bill paid to Kenyan EPZ employees in 2015 standing at 84 million dollars, local sourcing of supplies and services stood at 239 million dollars from manufacturing investments worth 74 million dollars.
He said the ongoing initiative will also help in establishing a new supply-chain of export quality clothes whilst creating 100,000 new jobs from the current 179,000 the sector employs.
It will also help reduce Kenya's clothing import bill that stands at over 815 million dollars worth of textiles and apparel.
Mohamed assured Kenyan textile and apparel manufacturers of government support ahead of a tougher year complicated by the strong U.S dollar, implications of U.S. new administration's new policy regime on AGOA and the EU-EPA deal.
"We haven't got the indication yet that there will be any change of policy direction on AGOA but if theirs is need we will renegotiate the deal," said Mohamed.
Buoyed by the AGOA extension for another decade, Kenya expects to protect and grow its share of U.S. markets from the 0.4 percent, increasing exports by 1 billion dollars in the next three years.
Mohamed was confident that Kenya's decision to sign EU-EPA deal and ratify the deal would not affect the manufacturer's European markets.
He said the effect of BREXIT vote on Kenya as related to Britain will not be a problem because "we can always have bilateral talks on trade."
"However, in the long-term, Kenya and Britain have a great relationship due to their colonial bond, so I do not see a significant challenge to our markets," Mohamed said. Enditem
