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| Sunday, 19 December 2004 |
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Apparel Association hails UPFA budget by Hiran H.Senewiratne The Joint Apparel Association Forum (JAAF) hailed the UPFA government's maiden Budget and expected all proposals would be implemented as quickly as possible to face the quota free market starting two weeks from now. "The 2005 budget has given every possible assistance and we are quite confident to face the highly competitive quota free era with the phase out of the Multi Fibre Agreement (MFA) in a fortnights time," Chairman JAAF Ashroff Omar said at a media conference. He said that to their delight the government had taken heed of all their proposals and hence they wished to express their appreciation of the government's prompt response.The government has decided to allocate Rs 250 million from the budget, he emphasised. Omar said that industry grouping JAAF made certain recommendations to the government when preparing the 2005 Budget for a five year strategic plan. Most recommendations were taken into consideration by the government. A Credit guarantee upto Rs 600 million will be given by the SME Bank which will enable other financial institutions to disburse a minimum of Rs 2 billion to the apparel sector companies for the sustenance of their business. Adding to that Omar said that the government took a decision to set up the SME Bank with effect from January 1st 2005. "With regard to bilateral and multilateral relations at the request of JAAF, the government sent a high-powered ministerial delegation to major markets to seek support for our apparel industry," Omar said. This resulted in maintaining the momentum of negotiating for the Free Trade Agreements (FTA) and the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to develop technological exchanges with the Clothing Industry and Textile Institutes (CITI) and the University of California, while in the case of EU, government interventions proved so effective. Omar reiterated however the fact that for the apparel industry to achieve its targets and double exports by 2007, it is imperative that Sri Lanka obtains duty-free access to EU countries. |
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