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| Kathmandu, Friday May 03, 2002 Baishakh 20, 2059. |
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Major forex earners perform
miserably Garment
Post Report
KATHMANDU, May 2:The slump in the garment
industry that began late 2000 has continued with exports to United States, the largest
absorber of Nepali garments, dropping by over 52 per cent in the first quarter of 2002 as
compared to the like period last year.
While the 2001 first quarter garment exports to
the US, which absorbs over 85 per cent of total Nepali exported garments, stood at US$ 70
million, it dropped to US$ 36.9 million in the same period in 2002.
Latest figures release by Garment
Association-Nepal (GAN) show that exports to US fell by 49 per cent in the month of April
alone. The exports during the month amounted to US$ 5.37 million, down from US$ 10.47
million in the same month last year.
The series of slumps in the first three months
of 2002 has been 45 per cent, 56 per cent and 60 per cent respectively as compared to the
same period in 2001.
The drop in garment exports to the US is not
just due to the recent US recession but due mainly to the diversion of orders from Nepal
to the Caribbean and sub-Saharan African countries, which receive duty- and quota-free
market access to US.
The facility received by the African and
Caribbean countries is proving a disaster to the once-vibrant Nepali garment industry.
Nepali garment entrepreneurs as well as the government have long been demanding with the
US to grant similar facilities. However, the US response so far has been cold.
Garment entrepreneurs view that the industry,
which once earned the largest chunk of the foreign exchange and gave employment to
thousands, will collapse if curative actions are now not taken. The government recently
had declared the export-oriented industries as sick promising to provide various
incentives, but is yet to implement the decision, causing mass disgruntlement amongst the
garment entrepreneurs.
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