GEPA to support ITME 2020

 

Adnan Adams Mohammed

India International Textile Machinery Exhibitions (ITME) Africa 2020 has caught the attention of the Ghana Export Promotion Authority (GEPA) as it promises to support the exhibition by sponsoring some exporters in Ghana’s textile and garment industry together with stakeholders to participate in one of the biggest global textile gathering scheduled to take place next year in Ethiopia.

Madam Afua Asabea Asare, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of GEPA, speaking at the official launch of the ITME Africa 2020 in Accra, last week, entreated the Ghanaian textile community to forge the needed collaborations with their international partners at the event to ensure Ghana derives the maximum benefits.

The recent Non-Traditional Export data released by GEPA indicates that the textile industry performed poorly in the industrial arts and craft sub-sector. The sector has consistently recorded a low growth rate and in 2016, it experienced an outright dip, recording a contraction of 1.4 percent.

“We must collaborate, forge relationships and take advantage which will inure to the total benefit of the State”, the GEPA CEO stressed.

According to the Chairman of the India ITME Society, Mr. Hari Shankar, the event is deemed to be more than a routine exhibition as various meet-ups including technical and investment seminars have been incorporated. He is urging the Ghanaian business community to maximise the needed potential in the sector.

As one of the largest textiles economies in the world, India is taking a new frontier in the area of promoting and facilitating trade in the textile sector by way of introducing to the African continent a complete solution to textile production through affordable technology and skills development among others.

Instructively, many African countries including Ghana are rated among the fastest growing economies in the world. With strong growth and increasing population, India is taking steps to strengthen fashion and textile industry in the continent by way of promoting trade, hence the ITME in Ethiopia.

The gathering which starts from 14th to 16th February, 2020, is expected to enable Ghanaian textile exporters’ leverage on the opportunities that abound in the global textile industry, particularly how technology and machinery are playing a pivotal role in the sector and as such incorporate such technology into the Ghanaian textile industry.

ITME Africa 2020 gathering will serve as an avenue to connect business to business and government to business to enable participants to engage in sustainable partnerships with potential investors for onward development in the sector.

Instructively, the EXIM Bank of India together with various banking and non-banking institutions with favourable business financing solutions will engage with participants as the International Trade Centre – a development agency that supports internationalization of Small and Medium—sized Enterprises is expected to facilitate the business to business meetings.