Advantage South Asia

• South Asia is one of the world’s premier garment export hub accounting for 12% of global exports and manufacturing 80% of the world’s brands.
• South Asian industry can benefit from the intra-regional trade brought about by regional cumulation. Sri Lanka plays a pivotal role for intraregional integration due to its politically neutral status in the South Asian region, creating a positive business environment for entrepreneurs from Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh to meet and do business together. Thus making Sri Lanka the “gateway to the huge South Asian market”.
• India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka & Pakistan together exported garments worth US$ 49 billion in 2014-15 and are expected to reach US$ 84 billion by 2020.
• South Asia’s greatest opportunity also lies in the fact that it has the largest youth population (487 million) in the world. With increasing disposable incomes, they are driving higher apparel sales year after year in the domestic markets, which in turn is also accelerating intra-regional trade.