The apparel sector with over 50% local value addition will realise over $5.5 billion from exports in 2022 which will count to over 7% of the GDP, Aroon Hirdaramani, Immediate Past President Chairman Sri Lanka Apparel Exporters Association (SLAEA) said.
“We are a very large contributor to the overall industrial exports of the country, and very importantly, we provide direct employment for at least 350,000 jobs and the indirect employment is far in excess of this in many symbiotic industries.”
“So we are a key part of the Sri Lankan economy and we need to continue that. We’ve had some exponential growth over the years and although in 2020 we had a decline of almost 25%, we were able to make that all back in 2021,” he said.
Hirdaramani said this year has been a record year for apparel exports but cautioned that there could be a lot of turbulence ahead.
He said the United States was the single largest country of exports and they needed to continue their growth to the US markets and the close association with US brands because those brands were going global and Sri Lanka wanted to be a partner and the hub for those brands.
He said the other trading partners, the EU and the UK, were also very important and they did have trade agreements with them.
He said the category has to also increase, especially among the Asian partners, India, China, Japan, and the rest of Asia.
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