Largest single investor The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) announced that it is lending $8 million to Bayteks Tikaret, a privately owned company, to build and operate a modern plant in Uzbekistan to manufacture knitted cotton garments, mainly for export. The loan will establish state-of-the-art garment manufacture in cotton-producing state.
Uzbekistan is one of the world's largest cotton producers and the second largest exporter. However, despite the government's strong support for textile investments, only about 28 per cent of total cotton fibre output is processed domestically because the country lacks manufacturing capacity.
Bayteks Ticaret will employ more than 1,200 people and manufacture, at full capacity, about eight million pieces of quality basic and polo T-shirts a year.
Bayteks Ticaret is owned by two private Turkish textile companies, Baha and Ultas. Haluk Bayatli, the General Manager of Bayteks and a major shareholder of Baha, said at the signing ceremony in London that Bayteks has made a strategic decision to expand its production base outside of Turkey, to Uzbekistan, where production costs are considerably lower, in order to supply its existing and potential clients in export markets such as the EU, USA and Russia.
The five-year loan will cover 29 per cent of the cost of building the new plant in the capital, Tashkent.
This investment is part of the EBRD country strategy for Uzbekistan,which focuses on supporting private-sector development and entrepreneurship, particularly SMEs and micro-business, provided that there is no direct or indirect link to the government or government officials.
London based The EBRD is the largest single investor in the region and mobilises significant foreign direct investment beyond its own financing. It is owned by 60 countries and two intergovernmental institutions. But despite its public sector shareholders, it invests mainly in private enterprises, usually together with commercial partners.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
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