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Ananta Group, a leading apparel exporter, has received $13.8 million in low-cost financial support from Proparco, a French Development Finance Institution.
The loan will help Ananta Huaxiang Limited (AHL) to increase its sweater manufacturing capacity through the expansion of its production facility located in Narayanganj, also to emerge as a large volume sweater manufacturer and strengthen its competitiveness in the international market.
Bangladesh is the second largest ready-made garment exporter in the world after China representing 81 percent of Bangladesh’s total exports and employing 4.4 million workers.
In this context, AHL ranks among the top 10 sweater producers in Bangladesh exporting mostly to Europe for various international brands.
With this project and high-end sweater manufacturing capabilities, AHL will be able to serve its customers by producing over 10 million pieces of sweaters by 2023 at a higher quality level and price points than before.
Diane Jegam, Regional Director of Proparco’s South Asia region said, “It gives us immense pleasure to support AHL, a responsible actor in Bangladesh’s garment industry committed to gender diversity.”
By supporting the growth of a job-creating company committed to the well-being of its employees, women empowerment as well as the sustainable use of resources, Proparco is supporting the largest exporting sector of Bangladesh.
Also, due to the quality of AHL’s working conditions and its various commitments towards women empowerment, the project qualifies for the 2X Challenge, a global gender finance initiative that Proparco has been contributing to since its launch in 2018.
Regarding this, Sharif Zahir, Managing Director of Ananta Group said, “This partnership with Proparco will greatly support our vision of sustainable factories scoring high on environmental and social compliance standards. Moreover, the new capacity expansion financed by Proparco has been completed in record time and the factory is already in operation employing a gender balanced workforce and contributing to the export earnings of the country.”
Importantly, the Project also addresses 3 SDGs: SDG#9 by developing operations at best standards; SDG#8 due to above average salary package, and to SDG#5 due to the women-dedicated programme, all will be implemented.
