Address by

 

 

Dr. the Hon. RAJESH JEETAH

 

 

 

Minister of Industry, Small and Medium Enterprises, Commerce & Cooperatives

 

 

On the Occasion of the

 

 

Ceremony of the  

 

 

The Chairman’s Award for Manufacturing Excellence

 

at

 

 

Swami Vivekananda Conference Centre, Pailles

 

on

 

Saturday 9th September, 2006 at 16.45

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hon. D. Gokhool, Minister of Education & Human Resources

Dr. the Hon. V. Bunwaree, Minister of Labour, Industrial Relations & Employment

Mr Arnaud Dalais, Chairman of CIEL Textiles

Distinguished Guests

Employees of CIEL Textiles,

Ladies and gentlemen

 

 

1.                  I would like to thank CIEL Textiles for inviting me here this afternoon at its award ceremony and for giving me the honour to address you. I would also like to pass on my congratulations to everyone involved in organising this event.

 

2.                At the outset I wish to commend this laudable initiative of CIEL to institute awards for rewarding manufacturing excellence. These awards, I understand, will be conferred on workers and factories within the group that have made outstanding contribution to its performance.  The quest for excellence should be high on the agenda of all enterprises as it has become an essential condition for continued success. There is no doubt that in the prevailing fiercely competitive environment, one has to aim at world class quality and performance for survival. Instituting an award scheme like the one we are witnessing can play a crucial role in achieving this goal by motivating one and all to reach greater heights in their respective roles. Indeed, enterprises should find ways and means to promote a culture of excellence, which should become part of their mission statement.

 

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

3.                CIEL Textiles remains the leading group in the textile and clothing sector. I visited one of its production units, namely Consolidated Fabrics Ltd, sometime back and I must say that I was particularly impressed by what I saw in terms of infrastructure, equipment and organisation to produce high quality fabrics to feed garment making units. With a total labour force of 8,500 and aggregate turnover of Rs. 4 billion, CIEL Textiles has a towering presence in our manufacturing landscape. It is also the most diversified group with activities in spinning of woolen yarns, production of pullovers, knitting and weaving of fabrics and production of knitted and woven garments. As part of its global strategy to remain competitive and expand its market share CIEL has now gone offshore with production units in Madagascar and India. My wish is to see CIEL emerge as a global player. That CIEL has reached such a size today is a clear reflection of all the men and women behind it, many of them in the background, who have worked hard to make things happen.

 

4.                Money, machines, materials and men are the critical resources underpinning an enterprise. However, it is said that behind every machine or operation there is a man or for that matter a woman. Very often, in their drive to increase output, productivity and profitability, many enterprises forget the human dimension in the production process. Still others think that improving performance means more work rather than smarter work.  Clearly labour remains an important factor of production like capital, land and entrepreneurship. A frustrated labour force can never be conducive for the smooth operation of an enterprise. Nor will a labour force that has not been made to develop a sense of ownership of the enterprise. Human resource development specialists have always underscored the point that if you have a contented work force and you manage human resources well, the job is more than half done. The awards today are tokens that recognise the contribution of human ingenuity to the operation of an enterprise.

 

5.                Let me assure the workers as well as enterprises that the sector will   remain a vital pillar of our economy. Following closures of a number of enterprises, loss of employment and contraction of exports, a negative perception of the sector has emerged. This perception will not last for long. We are doing whatever is required to turn around the sector and restore its growth potential. The sector should be able to attract the best brains of the country. Government recognises the contribution of exports to our economic growth and standard of living. We will continue to work to increase our export level.

 

6.                Our vision is to have a competitive, diversified and integrated textile and clothing sector that operates in the upper segment of the market. This obviously entails reshaping the sector and repositioning it a different market segment.  We intend to evolve towards a fashion industry that is associated with creativity and innovation, higher quality and value-added, technical superiority, speed and product differentiation. To support the sector to migrate to the upper segment of the market Government has announced the establishment of design and fashion institute. Let me hasten to add that the Consultant, which UNIDO has placed at our disposal, to advise us on the establishment of this institute was in Mauritius during the last two weeks on the second leg of his mission. He had a second round of discussions with stakeholders to validate his recommendations. The Consultant will submit his final report soon which will enable us to proceed with the establishment of the institute to serve the industry.

 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

 

7.                Our enterprises have in particular been hit by the MFA phase out, erosion of preference and emergence of a number of low-cost countries in the market place. Looking back it can be said that the lost of market preferences was foreseen, but we displayed a woeful lack of preparedness for the new trading environment that was unfolding. We have taken too long to wake up to the realities and to day we are still in the act of catching up. Government has taken a number of actions to turn around the sector and restore confidence. Following the Textile and Clothing Forum and the establishment of the Industrial Services Monitoring Cell a range of actions have been initiated, focusing on restructuring of enterprises, capacity building, market and product development and logistics. The Enterprise Development Fund which has been established by Enterprise Mauritius provides matching grant for eligible projects from enterprises that go towards improving their overall performance. A number of additional measures have also been taken in the budget to provide support to the sector. I would like to mention measures relating to improving access to finance, facilitating access to markets, creating a really conducive environment for businesses to flourish and the general economic reform programme which will have a positive impact on the sector. All these denote the strong commitment of Government to assist enterprises to adapt themselves to the new open trading environment.

 

8.                There are good signs that the sector is stabilising and will bounce back. Nearly Rs 8 billion are planned to be invested in both new and expansion projects. On the other hand, preliminary figures available indicate that the value of exports is rising and on that trend we expect to end the year with exports being higher than last year. I believe we have stemmed the contraction of the sector.  Let me also add that I led during the last week of August the Mauritian delegation, comprising eleven textiles and clothing enterprises, to the Magic International Show in Las Vegas, which is the largest wearing apparel fair in the world. We have witnessed a renewed interest form the part of US buyers in our apparels. What is clear is that Mauritius being far and not adequately known in the US and as such we have to improve our visibility and presence there. The enterprises which participated in the fair are confident that they will obtain new and additional orders from the US buyers. We thus expect to expand our exports to the US in the near future.

 

Ladies and gentlemen,

 

9.                Before ending I should say to Mr. Dalais, that you are presiding over one of our finest export group in the country. Your group has been trying to grapple with the momentous change taking place. It deserves our support. On the other hand I should exhort the workers to excel in what they are doing and work smarter.

 

Thank you.