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03 Apr. 2014
Kyrgyzstan: ITC assistance boosts clothing exports by half
by ITC News
Tatiana Pavelko, owner of Lilastyle
Olga Kim, owner of Primavera, looks over one of her staff's work
ITC’s trade promotion programme in Kyrgyzstan has assisted more than a hundred small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) since 1998. In the textiles and clothing sector, this has resulted in an average 48% increase in exports among the companies supported.

Nazik, a clothing maker in the capital Bishkek, has increased its revenues by 30% and its headcount by 20% in 2013 alone, thanks to the introduction of an ITC-supported quality-management programme, which awards seamstresses bonuses based on quality, said owner Zamira Myrzakanova. Many of Nazik’s 100 workers have seen their pay increase by 15% last year. Participation in ITC project activities has increased their output, while reducing the number of defects.

“We only started tracking defects thanks to the ITC programme,” Myrzakanova said. “What you cannot measure, you cannot improve.”

Across town at Lilastyle, which manufactures girls’ prom dresses for the Russian market, finding new buyers and improving quality have been key benefits of the ITC assistance. Owner Lilastyle Tatiana Pavelnko and her colleagues have learned how to get the most out of industry fairs and how to present their products to potential buyers.

Pavelnko, who dusted off her grandmother’s sewing machine in the late 1990s to make her first blouse, now employs 50 people. She had vague ideas about quality management, she said, but the ITC project gave her the tools to implement them. “We knew what to do, but we did not know how,” she said.

Potential for growth in textiles and clothing

The textiles and clothing sector in Kyrgyzstan represents 7% of the country’s total industrial output and employs around 150,000 people, 70% of them women. It was identified by the government as an industry for trade promotion because of its high potential for exports to offset the country’s growing trade deficit. The ITC project in the sectors is financed by Switzerland.

Damira Aitykeeva, who heads the Garments Design Department at the Kyrgyz State University of Construction, Transportation and Architecture, took part in the ITC project as a national consultant on productivity and production. She incorporated many of the ideas she learned from ITC consultants into the university curriculum. “What this industry is lacking are competent middle managers,” she said. “Modernizing the curriculum and making students focus more on their future clients will address this issue, going forward.”

Previously, none of the 30 companies Aitykeeva works with had any organized quality control in place. They did not even measure their defects, she said. Productivity was low as a result, and the quality level was suitable only for the low-end of the export market. “Many of these companies were founded by people who are not from the industry, but traders, or even teachers and lawyers,” she said. As part of her work at the university, Aitykeeva follows up with the beneficiary companies, and she has added 15 more companies as clients.

Back at Lilastyle, Pavelnko has big plans for the next few years. She is planning to move the company from its current location at her former family house to an industrial site with three times the floor space. In the volatile economic climate, however, she is treading carefully. If all goes well and sales continue to increase, she will be able to complete construction of a 750 square metre plant soon.

The achievements of the programme are recognized by the country’s government.

“The task of bringing the food processing and clothing sectors up to international standards, and thus becoming an impulse for positive economic development of the Kyrgyz Republic, is tremendous,” said Deputy Economy Minister Danil Ibraev. “It has been a practical and successful programme in sectors with substantial problems.”
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