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Spintex Group, India’s largest textile firm, plans
to invest on 25,000hc of land in Ethiopia with an
outlay of 100 million Br.
The implementation the project will enable the
country to meet its goal of having a 500 million
dollar textile industry by 2010, a senior official
at the Ministry of Trade and Industry told
Fortune.
Spintex was first invited by the Ambassador of India
to Ethiopia, Genet Zewdie, and has conducted an
initial evaluation by sending team of experts.
The company has reassured its interest to invest and
also presented its profile to Ethiopian delegates
led by state minister of Trade and Industry (MoTI)
Tadesse Haile, who left for India to attend the
India Africa Trade Fair on March 18, 2008 in New
Delhi.
The company also described its investment plan for
the 25,000hct of land to the delegates. Spintex says
it will produce 100,000 spindles per year in the
factory.
Local farms will supply agricultural inputs for the
factory it will erect.
Spintex will have a capacity to produce four times
more spindles than a similar plant owned by a
Turkish company called Ayka Addis.
Ayka, which is under establishment in Alemgena of
Oromia Regional State and hopefully to be completed
by 2008/2009; is expected to earn 80 million dollars
per year through exports.
Two sites were presented to Spintex: one in Amhara
regional estate around Belesa and another in
Southern Peoples, Nations and Nationalities Region
in a place called Yirgalem. The company is expected
to announce its decision in the coming two weeks
after observing both locations.
Established in 1972, the company is specialized in
the marketing of textile, machinery, projects
catering to spinning, weaving and knitting
industries.
The group is divided into four main divisions. These
groups are Spintex Pvt. Ltd (spinning, machinery and
accessories), Spintex Corp. (knitting machinery and
accessories) Indose Overseas Ltd. (knitting
machinery), and Spintex Impex Ltd. (industrial
products).
The federal government disclosed that investment
activities worth 1.6 billion dollars have to be
established in the country so as to generate an
income of 500 million dollars per year from the
textile industry.
This could be done by attracting an additional 191
new projects to the sector and through the expansion
of the existing ones.
Ayka and Adama Textile are among the new entrants.
Meanwhile, private investors have rented plants from
the city administrations of Dire Dawa, Awassa and
Arbaminch.
Other government-owned factories, including
Debreberhan Textile, Adey Abeba, Almeda, and Ma
Garment, are also expected to be privatized.
Girma Biru, minister of trade and industry, once
told a press conference that the projects at hand
are promising, though much remains to be done.
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