Through July 12-22, 2011 the representatives of a major Turkish apparel manufacturer company “Kardem” visited Georgia for the third time and already placed a test order with one of the local companies for 2500 pieces of clothes. The visits of the company are organized by Georgian National Investment Agency which is actively promoting the apparel manufacturing in Georgia and contributes to the development of the light manufacturing sector.
It should be noted that “Kardem” is one of the biggest suppliers to Famous Spanish apparel manufacturer group called Inditex, which in total unites eight brands including Zara, Pull & Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home and Uterque.
During their visits to Georgia representatives of “Kardem” visited local manufacturing companies exploring the opportunities for future cooperation. Georgia is prepared to offer investors the existing apparel plants as well as setting us new logistics centres. There is qualified workforce available and the labour costs are lower compared to the EU states which is a competitive advantage of the country. With duty free trade potential with large consumer markets such as Russia and the EU (due to GSP+), lower tariffs to the US (due to GSP) and competitive tax rates, Georgia has the potential to become a small, but significant, apparel manufacturing and export base.
