Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
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Aleppo, SANA – The industry wheel in Syria’s economic capital has started to get on with the production line of famous Aleppo clothing industry’s turning back, although it hasn’t completely halted during the years of war.
SANA visited ready -made clothing factories and workshops in Aleppo city, inspecting the current production situation. Absence of product promotion, the lack of manpower and raw materials and the power cut topped the seemingly endless pyramid of obstacles that faced the industrialists during the years of war, and overcoming all that could be looked at as nearly impossible at those times.
“We really did the impossible,”Monir Malhis, a factory owner, told SANA “we insisted to go on despite that 80% of the fabrics had been imported, the lack of power made us resort to the costly Amperes instead, not to mention having to increase wages of the workers due to the high cost of living… all that forced us to increase the product prices.”
Malhis, who is also Chairman of the clothing committee in Aleppo Chamber of Industry, said that tens of thousands of factories were either shut down or destroyed, and that caused a drop of their number to 500 only and that made the owners replace them with small workshops. Consequently, a weekly production of 600 items declined to a couple of hundreds.
“Rapidly, the factories started to re-run after security is restored to the area amidst businessmen’s awaiting this moment to come…their loss was enormous and they are eager to start all over again despite the retreat of the industry factors’ trinity: raw materials, power, manpower,” said Malhis.
Mohammad Ali Sakhina owner of a men clothing workshop said “We used to export products to Arab and foreign countries, but because of the war we had to move to several places and there is no way to export,” wishing that the border crossings would re-open again as soon as possible.
“It is essential to face obstacles and continue to supply the local market with products… high quality means competitiveness with the imported items and this process is meant to be a supply source to the national economy,” Sakhina noted.
According to Ammar Bazenjaki, who is an owner of women clothing factory, the situation of clothing industry is witnessing a state of recovery after expelling the terrorists. The businessman hoped that the industrial city of al-Lairamoun would be soon back again to work as it contains diverse sorts of industries and numerous factories.
“Unfortunately, there is a huge difference between the industry of Aleppo before and after the years of war, though sluggishly recovering, that is because factories were stolen, laborers were displaced and capitals moved not to mention the purchasing power weakness nationwide,” businessman Yousef Barakat said. “More markets should open and missions abroad should be held to cultivate the industrialists’ experience after years of stall.
Taking significant strides in the process of industry back again, the Aleppo residents with their flexible nature and passion for work with all the success formulas, on top of which competitiveness of quality and price, the national economy is likely to head more quickly towards recovery.
Rasha Milhem
