The History Of Textile And Apparel Industry In Sri Lanka

Textile and Garments/Apparel (Here in after refers to as Textile and Apparel or T&A) sector is a one of the key players in the industrial sector which has been significantly contributing to the economy of Sri Lanka over the past decades. When consider the composition of the gross national income by industrial origin, it composite with three broad sectors namely, agricultural sector, industries and services. Industrial sector composite with four categories; mining and quarrying, manufacturing, electricity, gas, water and waste treatment and construction (Central Bank of Sri Lanka 2015). Among them manufacturing activities are the largest segment of the industrial activities and textile and apparel is come under the manufacturing sub sector (Central

Further she points out that by the late 1950s, nearly around 300 categories of industrial products were begun to manufacture locally and among them textile and readymade garments were highlighted as the main category. According to Ekanayake (n.d.), Sri Lanka’s readymade garments were entered into the export market in 1960s and the first garment exports destination were to Russia. Further she states that the period after the late 1970s shows a boom in textile and apparel industry in Sri Lanka. Wijendra (n.d.) points out that this rapid expansion in the T&A industry has occurred due to two major reasons. First reason is the introduction of the open economic policy in 1977. With the introduction of the open economic policy the economy of Sri Lanka was radically changed. It guided to the relaxation of the rigid rules and regulations regarding the trade and investments (Wijendra n.d.) and the outlook of the industry was totally changed to a export oriented strategy (Perera n.d.) .The second important factor which contributes to the remarkable expansion of the Sri Lankan textile and clothing industry is the “Multi-Fiber Arrangement”