Chinese conglomerate Jiangsu Sunshine Group announced in a statement published on April 7 it will invest $359 million to build a textile factory in Ethiopia. 

The factory should be established in the Adama industrial park (about 100 km South East of Addis Ababa) over an area of 4.5 hectares. It should in the long term produce 10 million m of combed wool fabrics and 1.5 million finished units.

Established in 1986, Jiangsu Sunshine Group deals mostly in the power production, pharmaceutical products, housing and textile-clothing sectors.

Ethiopia over the past years has attracted many foreign companies operating in textile-clothing sectors including Turkish giant Akber, Indian ShriVallabh Pittie (SVP), Chinese Zhejiang Jinda Flax, Korean Myungsung Textile Company, Taiwanese George Shoe Corporation.

The country relies mostly on cheap labour, improved power supply chain and its road and ports infrastructures which are in good shape. According to a study by consulting firm Bernstein, manufacturing clothes in Ethiopia costs twice less than in China.