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EBRD lends $8 million for Uzbek textile plant
Loan will establish state-of-the-art garment manufacture in cotton-producing state
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is lending $8 million to
Bayteks Tikaret, a privately owned company, to build and operate a modern
plant in Uzbekistan to manufacture knitted cotton garments, mainly for export.
Uzbekistan is one of the world’s largest cotton producers and the second
largest exporter. However, despite the government’s strong support for textile
investments, only about 28 per cent of total cotton fibre output is processed
domestically because the country lacks manufacturing capacity.
Bayteks Ticaret will employ more than 1,200 people and manufacture, at full
capacity, about eight million pieces of quality basic and polo T-shirts a year.
Bayteks Ticaret is owned by two private Turkish textile companies, Baha and
Ultas. Haluk Bayatli, the General Manager of Bayteks and a major shareholder
of Baha, said at the signing ceremony in London that Bayteks has made a
strategic decision to expand its production base outside of Turkey, to
Uzbekistan, where production costs are considerably lower, in order to supply
its existing and potential clients in export markets such as the EU, USA and
Russia.
The five-year loan will cover 29 per cent of the cost of building the new
plant in the capital, Tashkent.
This investment is part of the EBRD country strategy for Uzbekistan, which
focuses on supporting private-sector development and entrepreneurship,
particularly SMEs and micro-business, provided that there is no direct or
indirect link to the government or government officials.
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