Sri Lanka invites Kitex group to invest

Kochi: The Sri Lankan government has invited Kitex Garments group to invest in the island nation and offered all support to the Kerala-based company.

According to a statement from the company, Sri Lankan Deputy High Commissioner D Venkateshwaran visited the Kitex office on Saturday and held a three hour-long discussion with its managing director Sabu Jacob.

Sri Lanka is the second country after Bangladesh to invite the Kitex group to invest in their nation.

Earlier, Jacob had held discussions with the Telangana government which had invited the company to invest there.

After holding parleys with the government officials there, the world's second largest manufacturer of kids apparel announced its entry into Telangana with an initial investment of Rs 1,000 crore.

Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu governments too had invited the garments company.

Alleging harassment by the Kerala government officials, Jacob had in the last week of June announced withdrawal from a Rs 3,500 crore investment project in the southern state.

However, the Left government has maintained that it had not initiated any enquiry into or inspection of Kitex Garments Ltd, on its own.

The inspections were carried out following directives of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Kerala High Court based on complaints from people against the company.

The state government had said it has an "open approach" towards issues raised by Kitex group, even as the company stuck to its decision to back out from Rs 3,500 crore investment plan in the state.