The Ethiopian Textile Industry Development Institute (EDITI) stated that the country’s textile exports for the first half of Ethiopian fiscal year 2015-16 are lagging behind the plan target.

The target was to achieve $60.07 million from textile exports, while only $41.1 million was attained, which is only 70% of the plan, said EDITI.

During the mid of last year, the government revealed ambitious plans to stimulate the sector by offering attractive incentives to investors.

These incentives include duty free import of spare parts of 15% of capital goods for the first five years of operation, the possibility to hire expatriates free from income tax provided they stay for no more than two years.

The government also offers reconciliation of VAT for materials purchased locally during the project period if declared within six months.

More than 152 new investments were expected and least $1 billion was anticipated from the sector’s export. The GTP II is also expected to create more than 170,000 job opportunities.

The country is also building at least ten industrial zones and all of them will be set up by the government.

It was revealed that while cotton production was planned on 262,000 hectares of land, only 65,000 hectares was used for cotton production. The El Nino destroyed cotton crops over 14,000 hectares of land.

The ETIDI Planning and Information Management Director, Abebe Kasse, said that the government wants the textile sector to be export oriented and give emphasis to quality.

High quality cotton which is grown in the country and duty free access to US through the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and the EU market acts as an advantage to the sector.

He believes that the textile industry can attain the export target for the remaining six months of the fiscal year.