The Textile and Readymade Garment Industry in South Asia: A Brief History and Reemergence

Abstract

The textile industry in general and garments, as the most labor-intensive sector, have been the road taken by most countries in their path to manufacturing and industrialization.¹ This was the case with the currendy high-income countries (HICs), and the trend continued with Japan and East and South East Asia. This chapter will start with a discussion of the rise of textile and clothing industries in the latter regions. Historically, as some nations lost comparative advantage due to rising unit labor costs, other countries, in a flying geese pattern, assumed the competitive mantle, and these have more recendy included China, Vietnam, and Cambodia.² The second section of this chapter briefly narrates this changing pattern of comparative advantage.