In order to establish and strengthen the contact with the apparel industry in Africa and to promote communication and cooperation, Executive Vice President of CNGA Jiang Hengjie led a commission and visited South Africa and Kenya from 3-14 June 2007.
The commission met with Mr. Jack Kipling (left fourth), the President of Clothing Trade Council of South Africa on June 7th. Mr. Kipling gave a brief introduction of the apparel industry in South Africa. Similar with our industrial upgrade with technology and innovation, South Africa also realized the importance of design and quick response capacities with the pressure from the competitive international market.
Local manufacturers in South Africa mainly specialize on the production of high end products with small volume and high value due to its higher labour cost, while the production of high-volume and low-price products has moved out of the country.
Compared with the situation of South Africa, the advantages of China’s apparel industry lie on the completed industrial chain and strong processing capacity. Our production mainly focuses on the products of high volume and low cost. Therefore, we should strengthen the cooperation between our two industries and our corporations with mutual compensation, said Jiang.
In Kenya, the commission met with the President of African Cotton & Textile Industries Federation (ACTIF) Mr. Jas Bedi (right third) and the Secretary General Mr. Barry Fisher (right second). ACTIF is an organization for cotton, textile and apparel industries in Africa with members from 17 African countries.
Mr. Jas Bedi at the same time is the President of Kenya Apparel Manufacturers Association. He gave a presentation of ACTIF and the current statement of Kenya’s apparel industry. As he said at the meeting, the domestic market in Kenya was quite small due to a small population and an underdeveloped economy.
Thus nearly all of the garments made in Kenya are for exportation. In the post-quota era, the exports from Asian countries such as China to Europe and the US keep on rising, which, together with the appreciation of Ksh, gives a hit to the apparel production in Kenya. He said Chinese apparel corporations are welcomed to invest in Kenya, where they could take the advantage of the tax free treatment and export to Europe and the US.
Jiang Hengjie also introduced the Asian Apparel Federation (AAF) to Mr. Jas Bedi, and said the two regional organizations should strengthen communication thereafter.
