| Project Detail |
Project ID
190163
Thematic Priority
Advancing Economic Competitiveness
LocationArmenia
UNIDO has been supporting Armenia to revitalize its clothing and footwear industry through the project Industrial Upgrading and Modernization Programme in Armenia (Armenia IUMP). The project’s Phase I (2014-2016) and Phase II (2017-2019) aimed to maintain and increase the local textile, clothing, leather and footwear enterprises’ domestic market share, and to contribute to Armenia’s integration into regional and international markets. In particular, the project aimed at.building local capacity to support the development and modernization of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and to position Armenian products as high-end designer goods.Throughout the project’s Phase I and Phase II, UNIDO supported 25 pilot beneficiary companies on a wide range of technical and business issues, including product design and development, quality management, production planning systems, legal matters, human resources, finance, marketing and networking. More than 727 individuals from the pilot beneficiary Armenian garment and shoe producers were trained extensively and a new brand “5900BC” was created for collective marketing activities through the presentation of unique and innovative joint garment collections. Eight garment and two footwear 5900BC fashion collections were produced and showcased at national, regional and international exhibitions. A fashion school “Atex-Burgo Fashion School” was established in Yerevan in conjunction with a leading fashion school based in Milan “Istituto de Moda Burgo”. UNIDO facilitated a public-private partnership model jointly with the Ministry of Economy of Armenia, within which a Light Industry Support Centre was established in Yerevan. This public-private partnership model aims to enhance the competitiveness of garment and footwear sectors, allow the local SMEs to identify and appeal to qualified specialists, innovative methodologies and high-quality technical services and jointly create products that are competitive at the international market. At the same time, this Centre will serve as a regional hub of technical high-quality support services for national and international manufacturers and SMEs, which will enable the sustainability and the improvement of Armenia’s position in the light sector internationally.As a result of the Phase I and Phase II, Armenian garment and footwear manufacturers were able to increase their technical and production potential, improve the design and quality of their products, and establish business partnerships with the largest garment manufacturers and retailers in the region. Thus, in 2018 – as compared to 2016 – the export volume of the Project beneficiary garment manufacturing companies increased by 196%, annual turnover by 92% and number of employees by 91%.Based on the successful results achieved during the Project’s Phase I and II, the Ministry of Economy of the Republic of Armenia (in a letter from the Minister of Economy, dated 24, October 2018) requested UNIDO to consider formulation and implementation of Phase III of this project that would extend the scope of beneficiary sectors, and would focus on the technical support to the newly established Light Industry Support Centre, thereby ensuring sustainability of the results of Phase I and II through institutional development and supply chain management of the light industry sub-sectors.As a response, UNIDO has formulated a project proposal aimed to extend its support to the implementation of the National Strategy for Export-Oriented Industrial Policy and the Strategy for Development of the Textile Industry of Armenia through strengthening productivity, competitiveness and collective export capacities of Armenian manufacturing companies operating in the priority light industries. Thus, the Phase III of the project would ensure (i) the sustainability and scale up of the business service provision to various subsectors of light industry (e.g. pattern making, fashion illustration, production planning, and virtual prototyping), and (ii) spillover effect of achieved impact to larger scope of manufacturing enterprises and start-ups in the country |
