::: Star Weekend Magazine :::

In this issue

Cover Story

The
Post-MFA Conundrum

Readymade garments account for about 75% of our total foreign revenues. Yet many experts grudgingly call it an 'industry', as they believe it is an industry that produces its goods out of imported components. But this very industry has also created job opportunities for hundreds and thousands of women and men, who otherwise would have remained unemployed. The industry that thrived on the Multi Fibre Agreement, nicknamed MFA, now face a crucial challenge as the agreement expired on January 1, 2005. How will our garments industry fare in this new circumstance? And how well are we prepared, if at all, to survive the withdrawal of the quota?