Cotton plantation & clothes industry [Archives:2003/677/Business & Economy]

By Abdul-Aziz Mohammed Abdullah
For the Yemen Times
Cotton plantation is considered one of the most important agricultural products which should enjoy the utmost concern of the state, especially, if we knew that the cotton of our country is of the highest quality among all sorts of cotton and it has a well-known international reputation from long time ago. It is worth mentioning here that we export most of our production of cotton as raw materials, only part of it is used to operate the weaving and textile factories in governorates of Sana’a and Aden. Both factories have a large number of manpower amounting to more than 600 workers, but unfortunately our country is one of the most countries that squander its capitals and resources whereas we produce the worst products out of the best cotton in the world. The reason for that are the older technologies of the means of production of those factories.
The technology of weaving and textile factory in Aden governorate is of the thirties, for example and the re-operation of that factory does not achieve any economic revenues at all even if we want to realize the point of equality (no profit, no loss). So we see that one of the best solutions to deal with this situation, as long as we are aiming at providing many job opportunities to reduce the acuteness of poverty, to decrease the ratio of unemployment and do our best to promulgate the investment atmosphere and to talk always about offering the most possible facilities to attract investors, we see that it is very necessary that the state take actions to provide the essential financial funding to prepare a study concerning technical and economical feasibility for the industries of cotton spinning according to “term of reference” authorized standard assimilating within it the study of market and determining our needs of the various clothes and holding a comparison between exporting cotton as raw materials and manufacturing it locally. In addition to studying cotton manufacturing as cotton threads, cotton clothes or mixed (cotton/polyester) taking into consideration the possibility of making use, as much as possible, of the recent abilities and the capabilities of Sana’a and Aden weaving and textile factories, we mean by that the human and material capacities of equipment, instruments, buildings and other institutions as well as professional and human cadres that possess the acquired experience. We have to determine the appropriate productive capacities of each of these factories, and should it be industry for weaving and textiles or should we specialize some of them to manufacturing only cotton spinning. It must be determined as what are the workshops or plants that could possibly be erected as annexations to this large industry. The possibility exists for example to establish more than one factory for cloth industry, some of them are cotton clothes 100% others mixed cloth (cotton/polyester). Some cloth is required for making shirts, others for trousers, cotton towels, socks and stockings, underwear, and so on. But we may come to a conclusion from that drama that we have to export products as cotton spinning and they are on demand in many countries as well as our country. What we like to say in this haste, that the cost of this suggested study to whatever amount it has come, we can regain it back. The results of this study will be in the form of a number of detailed studies for the above-mentioned projects. It is our duty to do our best to offer as much as possible of facilities, particularly because we know that the country as a whole will benefit from its revenues in many aspects: attraction of investors, erecting new investment projects, authentic diagnosis of the situations of both Sana’a and Aden Weaving and Textiles Factories. We have promulgated it among investors instead of selling it in its recent condition as a scrap thing with the cheapest prices. This means providing many job opportunities not only to meet the demand of the projects that will be the result of this drama, but this will open a large and vast scope for sewing various kinds of clothes not only for the local market but also for exporting as long as we possess relatively better merits than others. We hope that cotton plantation will witness expansion instead of the decline which is existent now.
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