Sri Lanka’s future: A part of ‘flying geese’ chain or just a ‘sitting duck’?
One man’s agony is another man’s profits-August 12, 2013 At a recent public discourse on the future of Sri Lanka’s economy held at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, an industry leader from the country’s lifeline, the textile and garment industry, expressed confidence in the industry’s ability to successfully outcompete the newcomers to the industry from the region.
When pointed out that Sri Lanka, with its rising wage levels, may lose the market to low cost labour countries like Bangladesh, Myanmar and Cambodia, the industry leader maintained that the slot created by China’s departure from the industry is being filled by Sri Lanka and not by those newcomers to the industry.
China’s world market share in textile and garment exports is huge and therefore, what is available to Sri Lanka is in fact beyond the country’s capacity to supply. Hence, according to him, Sri Lanka’s current reliance on the garment industry will continue to pay dividends to the country even in the future. In other words, the country will not face any risk even if it continues with the present product mix of exports where textiles and garments constitute more than a half of the country’s manufactured exports.
China’s exit from apparel industry is based on sound economic logic
