(UTV | COLOMBO) – President Gotabaya Rajapaksa yesterday issued an Executive Order to stop imports of national and Buddhist flags.
The President also insisted on a robust upgrade of local textile technologies and trade enforcement actions to enable local textile manufacturers to produce the greater percentage of the local school uniforms and the security forces uniforms from next year.
President Rajapaksa told textile industrialists that they had better started manufacturing high quality fabrics and garments.
He was on a tour of inspection in the Dankotuwa Industrial Estate, yesterday. Textile industrialists, manufacturers, importers and exporters and the managers of the Dankotuwa Textile Mill (Pvt) Ltd. in Kandana, Vanguard Industrial (Pvt) Ltd in Kapuwatta, and Creative Textile Mill (Pvt) Ltd. in Wattala accompanied the President.
He said that both large -scale and small –scale textile industrialists must aggressively lead this effort and enhance the size and the quality of local textiles and garments, which will create jobs, and benefit the local textile industrialist and the consumer.
He directed them to look into the possibilities of incorporating those who produce textile as self-employment to manufacture school uniform material.
The President pointed out that by increasing the local textile production the country can save up to 68 percent on import costs. The Education Ministry can save over Rs 80 million yearly thereof, the President told the industrialists.
The requirement of fabric to produce school uniforms is said to be 11 million meters. Vanguard Industrial (Pvt) Ltd in Kapuwatta Vanguard Kapuwatta which contributed 40 percent of the school uniform requirement before 2015, is currently in the manufacture of towels and bed-sheets.
Vanguard managers said here that they would be able to supply 30 percent of the school uniform material requirement.
Creative Textile Mill Pvt Ltd. imports yarn from India, Pakistan and China. It has given employment to 500 people. The company is planning to increase its production capacity to 100,000 meters of fabric per day.
The industrialists have pointed out here that the laundry detergents are not properly regulated and that this has caused damage to the color of the fabrics they produce.