LC Waikiki, Turkey based clothing firm that operates in over 20 countries across the globe, has expressed its interest to invest in Kenyan textile and apparel sector as it offers a world class investment location with competitive advantage to boost Nairobi’s efforts to grow the textile and apparel sector.

The company is in discussion with leading shopping malls, namely, The Junction, Two Rivers and Garden City, in a bid to acquire retail shops. Kenya is on the charm offensive to win big in the textile sector.

Adan Mohamed, Kenya’s Industrialization and Enterprise Development Cabinet Secretary, said in a statement issued in Nairobi after he met with LC Waikiki CEO Smail K Sac in Turkey that Kenya plans to set up special economic zones to help woo global textile and apparel firms to position the East African nation as a manufacturing hub.

Economic liberalisation policies, including the mass importation of second-hand clothes in the 1990s, have led to the collapse of the textile industry in Kenya. At present the second- hand clothes industry employs three times more workers than the local textile industry.

Speaking during the meeting, CEA Smail K Sac said that the company is exploring the emerging retail market opportunities that the growing middle class presents in Africa, and Kenya is one of their focus countries.

Fortune magazine has ranked Kenya amongst the top seven investment destinations to watch in emerging markets due to its massive efforts made in infrastructure development, the power sector and the improving macro-economic stability. It is due to these improvement that Kenya presents a huge opportunity to invest in the textile and apparel sector.