Textile Development Strategy 2023 - 2026

In February 2022 the Government of Armenia approved the Armenian textile industry development plan and the resulting action plan for the period of 2023-2026. The legislative package was developed under the joint coordination of the EBRD’s Investment Council of Armenia and the Ministry of Economy, in collaboration with the UK Government’s Good Governance Fund. 

The main strategic goal is to ensure the improvement of the sector's competitiveness by promoting the growth of added value and productivity, as well as entering new markets with its own brand. A key role is assigned to the added value created per hour of work. This indicator reflects the productivity of this sector. 

As an institutional measure, it is suggested to calculate the index of added value per working hour for the companies of the sector every year and set an upper limit. Companies above the threshold will receive targeted support from the state. Support to sector businesses will be developed on the basis of 4 main principles: co-financing the business, tax support in the form of tax refunds, availability of measurable indicators for each measure to monitor performance and make appropriate changes and strategy flexibility, constant monitoring of results and additions and changes necessity.

Support measures are aimed at the following target  groups of beneficiaries: companies above the annual selected added value threshold (have the largest amount of support), textile companies located and operating in bordering communities, textile companies that increase the product complexity index.

Within the strategic development vision several main development directions were highlighted, namely: to improve the competitiveness of workers in the textile sector, to optimize and modernize business processes, contributing to the increase of efficiency and productivity, to modernize the production facilities of the textile industry by introducing high technologies that will contribute to the creation of more complex and high added value products, to ensure and encourage representation of Armenian brands in new consumer markets, etc.

The clothing industry is one of the 11 strategic sectors of Armenian economy aimed at exports, which is an important source of employment in the country, with more than 90 percent involvement of women. 2020 7400 people worked in the sector or 1.5 times more than in 2017.

The adopted strategic paper is available on the official source (here).