Mauritian SME and Cooperative Minster Soomilduth Bholah has urged apparel exporters to revamp the textile and apparel industry in the country by leveraging the advantages of intelligent networking so that the sector moves towards Industry 4.0. He also urged exporters to make robotics and 3-D printing must an integral part of the industry.

Bholah said this during a meeting with prominent exporters from the sector at the SME Mauritius Coromandel branch office. The meeting aimed to adopt a collective and coordinated approach engaging all stakeholders to respond to the resulting threats and to identify new opportunities to reorient the sector for sustained development following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Mauritius exports textiles and apparels worth Rs 22 billion per year. The sector, which employs around 31,000 people, is now on its knees because of the pandemic. However, some manufacturers are still receiving orders from the main markets—South Africa, the United States and the United Kingdom—despite the lack of visibility of the sector for the forthcoming months.