Trade deal at fault: Solanki
Wednesday, July 05, 2014
Fiji Times, Fiji
PROBLEMS resulting from SPARTECA are to be blamed for the substantial drop in garment production and not the non-performance of a particular factory.
Textile, Clothing and Footwear Council president Ramesh Solanki said it was wrong to attribute the 59.2 per cent drop in garment production to the poor performance of Ghim Li garments because the company’s production problems was evident two to three years before it closed.
He was responding to a statement made by Government Statistician Timoci Bainimarama, who attributed the decline in the manufacturing sector in 2005 largely to the huge fall in garment production.
He had said the production of garments declined mainly because of the closure of one of the largest garment factories.
Mr Solanki said the SPARTECA agreement was why they faced so many problems over the years.
“I had lobbied for the content of local production to drop from 50 per cent to 25 per cent because this would allow for about 5000 more jobs to be created,” he said.
He said the Government should do something urgently to address the issue because there would be more problems faced by the industry.
