670 to lose jobs - JAMAICAOBSERVER.COM -
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Published on: 10/13/2004
Last Visited: 10/13/2004
Mark Hart, CEO of the Hart Group, said the planned closure of the garment factory is due to his company's inability to compete with garment manufacturing companies in the international market, particularly in the Far East.
"The US is pretty much opening up textiles, and textiles imports to the States (US) is unrestricted, so there is definitely a move towards China and other East Asia low-cost producing countries," Hart told the Observer.The Hart Group, he added, cannot exist with such a competition.
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Hart said yesterday that his company, from as early as 2002, had warned its workers at Sportswear Producers Number Three of the severe implications that the move by the US administration would have on the company.
Yesterday, Hart said his company had entered in an agreement with the HEART/NTA, which will be providing certification courses for some of the employees who will be displaced.
These courses, he argued, would prepare the workers for the expected boom in the tourism sector, particularly in the northwestern region of the island.
"We believe that there is some optimism in the economy; and with all the hotels to be built, there will be some opportunities for the workers to support the new investments," the Hart Group CEO said.
In the meantime, he said the company is likely to invest in the information technology (IT) sector, as the garment industry is not poised for any growth.
"We are looking at the IT sector; we still have something that we are looking at, but nothing has been finalised as yet," Hart told the Observer.
But he said the group was considering the building of a facility in the Montego Bay Free Zone to house an existing IT company, and was also examining a proposal to operate an