Garment Industry grows despite challenges

Organisation of Professional Associations of Sri Lanka (OPA) had its 21st Annual Sessions on "Eradication of Poverty and Hunger" recently at the Sri Lanka Institute of Tourism and Hotel Management, Colombo. The Guest of Honour at this annual sessions was Ashroff Omar, CEO of Brandix Lanka Ltd. There were four technical sessions; Agriculture; Trade, Finance, Banking; Industries and Infrastructure; and Human Capital Development. There were 20 technical presentations under the theme of Eradication of Poverty and Hunger.

In keeping with this year's theme, "Eradication of Poverty and Hunger" Omar presented a refreshing approach to working towards Eradication of extreme poverty and hunger by bringing business, civil society, and the Government together. Omar quoted from the Department of Census and Statistics Survey that 15.2% of Sri Lanka's population live below the poverty line with less than US$ one a day and more alarmingly over 50% of the population of our country have below 2030 k cal level of dietary energy consumption.

He highlighted the contribution that the Industry has made in alleviating this situation to a large extent by taking work to the worker, providing employment and essentially transforming the rural landscape. In fact, the clothing industry is the first and the only in large scale industry that has moved to a rural Sri Lanka as a viable poverty eradication alternative to traditional industries such as fisheries and agriculture. Omar said that his company has already started setting up operations in the east coast and expected to commence exports as early as December 2008. This is an war area and commencing development processes will definitely uplift the lives of the people in the area.

Omar stated that the industry has been able to continue to grow amidst tremendous global competition due to its continuous innovation and value addition. He stressed that education and professional intervention providing innovation and value addition is key for the development and growth of these industries which filter down to the society in terms of increased employment and better living conditions.

The President of the OPA, Upali Bulumulla said that most of our people earn less than Rs. 200 per day and 25% of the people are in extreme poverty and earn Rs. 100 a day. Many people are from rural underdeveloped areas. This was the backdrop that caused OPA to have a theme on "Poverty Eradication."

Bulumulla said to improve lies of the poor, it is necessary to plan and implement projects and programs that will create actual jobs, improve health and education facilities. He said that all should work towards Poverty alleviation and that by 2020, poverty should be history in Sri Lanka.