Apparelcn
The C&H garment factory in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, is busy. About 400 Rwandan workers are working in a 1,500-square-meter factory to work together and perform their duties. They cut fabrics, sew garments, and inspect finished products. This is April 30. The vivid scenes the reporter saw during the interview on the morning of the day.
Many of the uniforms and school uniforms of the Rwandan army, police, immigration bureau and other units come from this factory opened by the Chinese in 2015. In addition, this factory also produces safety warning clothing and fashion clothing.
The Rwandan government is currently promoting the “Made in Rwanda” plan, which aims to increase the output and quality of the country’s manufacturing industry, replace imported products with domestic products and increase exports. In the eyes of the locals, the C&H garment factory has contributed to Rwanda’s development of its own manufacturing industry.
Factory Manager An Yawen said: “Before we came, Rwanda had no real large-scale garment factories, only small workshops. They had limited production capacity and could only produce small-scale orders.”
According to her, C&H currently has 1,200 workers, all of whom are Rwandans. This plant is the earliest plant of the factory. Due to the increase in orders, the factory built a new plant nearby last year and has gradually started production. The old factory has 5 production lines, and the new factory plans to build 16 production lines. Each production line of simple style garments can produce more than 1,000 pieces a day.
An Yawen said that 20% of the garments produced by the factory are sold in Rwanda and 80% are exported to European and American countries.
“The workers here didn’t know much about garment making before they arrived at the factory. Now they have been trained in the factory to make their own garments,” she said.
When the factory was first established, 200 workers were recruited. An Yawen and two Kenyan technicians hired by the factory bought more than a dozen containers of fabrics and taught them how to make clothes from scratch.
Now, workers can make many styles of clothing, and the Rwandan team leader trained in the factory can formulate the process, arrange the process and the number of production people according to the style. In addition, the factory is training 36 Rwandans to learn embroidery. After two years of training, the factory plans to apply embroidery skills to garment making.
In January this year, a Rwandan marketing manager of the factory founded his own garment factory. He has no technical staff, and the factory has supported him with technical staff such as production managers, cutting supervisors, and mechanics. “Our purpose here is to train and help local people. Since he wants to set up a factory, we can help him.” An Yawen said.
Factory personnel manager Ericsson Ndajjimana said: “Such a modern way of (clothing production) is brand new in Rwanda, and this factory is very important to Rwanda.” Before entering the factory in 2015, Ndajjima Na has no knowledge of costume making. Under the training of the factory, he has gradually grown from an auxiliary worker and a production controller to a senior management of the factory.
For “Made in Rwanda”, the C&H garment factory opened by the Chinese has played an active role, not only producing many styles of clothing for Rwandans, but also helping Rwandans acquire skills in making and producing clothing. Ndajjimana said: “We will continue to teach more Rwandans to produce clothing.”