Recently, two garment factories that exported their products only to the American market had to be closed due to the American and Chinese crises. About 2500 people who were making a living lost their jobs due to this. The value of the machinery of these factories located in the Koggala Investment Processing Zone is hundreds of millions of US dollars.

On the intervention of the Sri Lanka Board of Investment, Aitken Spence, a pioneering company in this country, has joined forces to re-establish these two factories. Accordingly, steps were taken to re-operate these two factories under Ace Apparels. For this, the company is investing more than 3.6 million US dollars in the first phase.

The signing of the relevant agreement was done on the last 28th by Dinesh Weerakkoddy Chairman of the Sri Lanka Board of Investment, and Mr. Dr. Rohan Fernando Director, on behalf of Aitken Spence Company.

Mr. Lushan Perera, the company’s chief executive officer, says that this factory, which is operating under a new vision, will generate substantial new job opportunities, and it will expand further. He also said that steps have been taken to start the production process within 2 months.

Speaking further, Mr. Perera said that given the ongoing global economic crisis, his company’s hope is to focus on competitive products and find new markets, and for that, he will pay more attention to the markets of emerging Asian countries such as India, China, Indonesia, and Japan.

Mr. Priyanka Ranatunga, director of the Koggale Investment Processing Zone of Sri Lanka Board of Investments, said that at present, a workforce of about 11,000 in the Koggala region is responsible for earning foreign exchange, and with the opening of new factories, that number may increase to 13,500, and in addition, a large number of indirect jobs will also be created. He said that it is predicted that the existing shortfall in price orders will be restored by the end of the year and the necessary empowerment of the factories will be done accordingly