Africa-Press – Angola. The president of the Association of Textile, Clothing and Footwear Industries of Angola (AITECA), Luís Contreiras, considered, this Monday, in Luanda, that it is essential to carry out a deep reflection on factors that affect the growth of the national economy.
The businessman was speaking during a meeting about business opportunities in the clothing sector, promoted by the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, which had as one of the topics being addressed “the increase in customs fees in force in the country”.
He highlighted the efforts made by the Government to consolidate the industrial sector, having defended an analysis of who benefits from the sale of imported products and what opportunities and benefits it brings to Angolans.
According to the association leader, a holistic view, on everyone’s part, on spending on imports of goods already produced locally could find a framework to take advantage of the great opportunity that “we have as a nation to develop the national productive sector, despite the constraints”.
Luís Contreiras highlighted the measures applied with the increase in rates, with a view to safeguarding the production and consumption of products domestically.
In his opinion, the efforts to be undertaken and overcome could benefit the country’s economic development through industry, job creation and the supply of locally made products, contributing to the reduction of the inflation rate, creation of capacity for export through the Lobito corridor , among other benefits.
“As a representative of national producers, we understand the distress of distributors and traders of the final product when seeing the prices of their products worsen due to the increase in customs fees, combined with the increase in the exchange rate and inflation rate”, he said.
Textile industries
He mentioned that the country already has significant investments in the sector, such as the three large vertical textile industries, located in Luanda, Dondo, in the province of Cuanza-Sul, and Benguela.
Likewise, he stressed, there are around 95 medium and small clothing and footwear manufacturing factories, between Luanda, Sumbe, Benguela, Huambo and Malange, and more than 500 micro units including ateliers, tailors and others throughout National territory.
The sector generates around 10,020 direct jobs and more than 20,000 indirect jobs, from cotton production, clothing, footwear, distribution and traders of the final product.
The association leader emphasized that Textang II is fully operational and has distributed quality fabrics to the market, and also has a knitted fabric production factory and a tanning factory in the country’s capital.
On the other hand, he referred to last year’s production, during which a total of 34,388,700 pieces of clothing were produced, which represented an increase of 93% compared to previous years.
The president of AITECA requested that the national clothing textile sector be included in the group of priority activities, with an amount allocated to it from the BNA for the acquisition of foreign exchange, intended for the import of raw materials and accessories to sustain national production.
As part of efforts to boost the sector, the meeting, led by the Minister of Industry and Commerce, Rui Miguens, brought together various players in the textile industry, from fabric producers, clothing and footwear manufacturers, raw material distributors and traders in the final product.
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