In its bid to invite investments from the Indian garment and textile sector, a contingent of top officials from the Ethiopian textile industry met Southern India Mills’ members at Coimbatore and Dindigul recently.
Sileshi Lemma Bekele, DG, Ethiopian Textile Industry Development Institute and Bogale Feleke Temesgen State Minister for Industry were also a part of the contingent.
During the meeting, Temesgen urged Indian investors to cultivate more cotton in Ethiopia since there is more potential to enhance cotton production in Ethiopia. He also added that excellent infrastructure, cheap power, easy availability of land and duty-free market access to the US and the European countries could be big pluses for the Indian investors.
The delegation also stressed on the importance of industrial parks as they have been instrumental in the development of Ethiopian textile industry. Of the 13 industrial parks, 4 are already operational with buildings that have excellent power supply and easy access to roads. Some Indian companies like Arvind Limited have already invested in the region.
Besides planning to increase the generation of power from 4,370 MW to 17,000 MW in the following 3 years, the country is today offering land on lease for 60-80 years. These are the main reasons that are luring nations like China, Japan, Germany and UK to Ethiopia.
It is worth noting that the garment and textile sector in Ethiopia, of late, has seen significant surge in development that is well supplemented by cheap labour and inspired labour force. The day might not be far when Ethiopia could give Vietnam a run for its money with regard to attracting foreign direct investment in the textile sector.
