Sektor Perkhidmatan

Malaysian Textile & Apparel Industry

INTRODUCTION Do you know that Alain Delon, Gucci, Adidas, Nike, Reebok, Brooks Brothers, Kohl’s, Polo, Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Yves St Laurent, and many more world reknown up-market brands are made by the contract manufacturers in Malaysia? On the other hand, some local brands like British India and John Masters have penetrated into global markets with their superior quality and designs, whilst other home-grown brands such as Somerset Bay, East India Company, Seed, Anakku, and lot of others are striving to expand the domestic middle-class market share as a warm up to venture overseas. Textile and apparel are basic consumption items, in both developed and developing countries. The industry, especially clothing / apparel, is labourintensive and requires relatively modest capital to start up and operate. Therefore, developing economies such as China, India, Vietnam, Cambodia, and others, that have pool of low wage rates labours, appeal to the companies seeking off-shore production with cost advantage than the developed countries.

May, 2007 Volume 9, Issue 5

In This Issue

Malaysian Textile & Apparel Industry New Industries in Southeast Asia’s Late Industrialization: Evolution versus Creation , The Automation Industry in Penang (Malaysia) Considered International’ Headlines

1

11

The textile and apparel was once the top three export earners of manufactured goods for Malaysia, and Penang is one of the prominent location for textile and garment makers in the country. Today, Penang / Malaysia, however, is no longer the low wages labour intensive production centre, with the emergence of China and Indochina. Do we still remain competitive in this industry? Is textile and apparel a sunset industry in Malaysia? This article presents briefly Penang / Malaysia’s development of the textile and apparel industry, highlights the opportunities and challenges faced by the industry players in Penang / Malaysia, as well as to...