A multi-sectoral meeting chaired by Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahindra Rajapaksa was held on Wednesday (11 March).
Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF) Secretary General Tuli Cooray proposed three key measures on behalf of the apparel industry to combat and minimise the impact of the pandemic.
According to data by Daily Mail, Sri Lanka currently imports approximately 25 per cent of its textiles from China. In 2018, the country imported cotton worth US $ 218.1 million and knitted/crocheted fabric worth US $ $ 132.6 million from China.
The presented paper contained the possible impact of Coronavirus (COVID-19) on the industry and listed proposed measures that would help safeguard the small and medium-sized industry players.
Assuming that there will be no cancellation of orders, the proposal was made.
The industry seeks assistance from Government in various areas such as extending over-time (OT) hours from legally permitted 60 hours to 90 hours for 4 months beginning from June and ensuring minimal disturbances to logistics.
It also kept forward a request to provide financial support to small and medium-sized industry players to get hold of the lost pace as certain fabrics from China would be available for processing in the coming weeks that would kick off operations of bulk manufacturers.
To ensure operations of SMEs, industry requests banks and firms to grant adequate loan facilities subject to the Credit Support Scheme referred to the Central Bank Circular No.1 of 2020.
Thirdly, logistics plays an important role in the supply chain so as to provide ontime delivery to its buyers.The industry will negotiate with independent service providers to offer weekly charter flights, the clearance for which is sought from Government.
Estimated losses for the coming months round up to US $ 510 million, and the situation is unlikely to achieve or reach near the target of 2019, that equalled to US $ 5.3 billion exports.
