Ministry Of Commerce: Lesotho Will Promote Localization Of Textile Industry

According to Lesotho's media reporter, recently, Lesotho's clothing and textile industry has been in a straight decline. With the closure of factories, more and more workers have lost their jobs. Since the beginning of this year, 10000 workers have left their jobs, and the wave of unemployment is expected to continue. Clothing and textile industry is the second largest employment industry after the government. Affected by the decrease of orders in the United States, the industry performs poorly.

Rathakane, the head of Lesotho Independent Democratic Alliance, pointed out that the current industry is facing difficulties and urged the government to help the factory find an alternative market. Ratjomose, an economist at Lesotho National University, said that in recent years, Lesotho's exports to North America are gradually losing competitiveness, and the quantity and value of exports have declined. At the same time, exports from Madagascar, Mauritius, Kenya, Ethiopia and other African countries are increasing. Ratjomose believes that Lesotho needs to promote self-sufficiency of raw materials rather than import from Asia, and then fully participate in the global value chain to achieve economic restructuring. The current problem in Lesotho is that the textile industry is dominated by foreign capital, which means that the industry profits are very limited. Ratjomose also warned that the contraction of the textile industry would exacerbate the poverty level of the country.

Recently, Schuliler, a minister of Laiwu Trade and Industry University, announced that Lesotho would soon begin to design and manufacture clothes for direct export to the United States, which is different from the current design in Taiwan, China. He said: "This will be beneficial to Lesotho, because we no longer need Taiwan to work for us, and the money saved will be used for labor, water and electricity and other public utilities.".