Knitwear industrialists to scout for opportunities in Ethiopia

Tirupur: A group of knitwear industrialists from here will soon visit Ethiopia to analyse the prospects for investment opportunities in the African country.

“We have planned to take a group of knitwear unit owners and representatives to Ethiopia to explore the investment opportunities. We heard that investors could have major advantages including availability of cheap labour and free trade access to European and American markets,” said N Sreedhar, chairman of Tirupur chapter of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), which is organising the business tour. “In Tirupur cluster, we are witnessing increase of production and operation costs. Many established players are looking for expansion opportunities. While Chinese companies are investing heavily in underdeveloped countries to make use of trade advantages of those countries, why Indian companies should not enter?”

“Having expertise in the international market, the companies can look for investment opportunities in countries like Ethiopia. With that, they can improve their market shares and it will obviously help to improve further relationship between our country and the ones where the investments made,” Sreedhar said.

“It is not about moving whole production machinery out of India. The companies would see the opportunity to expand their business in those countries. The Tirupur units can concentrate on producing bulk quantities of basic styles of garments rather than tough styles, if they invest in Ethiopia. But all such prospects are in preliminary stage. While few companies from Tirupur have invested in Ethiopia, it would be easy for other possible investors to analyse and take decisions.”

Delegates from Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya had visited Tirupur last July and invited industrialists for investments. Many industrialists have been visiting the African and southeast Asian countries individually.