French firm backs Ananta Group with $13.8m

A French development finance institution has lent a local garment manufacturer $13.8 million to strengthen its international competitiveness.
With this loan, Proparco supports Ananta Huaxiang Limited (AHL), a subsidiary of Ananta Group in Bangladesh, to boost its sweater-making capacity expansion at the production facility in Narayanganj, reads a statement issued on Thursday.
This operation will allow the AHL to emerge as a large-volume sweater manufacturer and strengthen its competitiveness in the international market.
Ananta Group is one of the leading apparel manufacturers with revenues of more than $360 million and employing 26,000 people across several facilities in Dhaka and Chattogram.
Bangladesh is the world's second-largest ready-made garment exporter after China representing 81 per cent of the country's total exports and employing 4.4-million workers.
In this context, the AHL ranks among the top 10 sweater producers in Bangladesh exporting mostly to Europe for various international brands, claims the statement.
With this increase in high-end sweater-manufacturing capacity, the AHL will be better able to serve its customers by producing over 10-million pieces of sweaters by 2023 at a higher quality level and price points than before.
"It gives us immense pleasure to support AHL, a responsible actor in Bangladesh's garment industry committed to gender diversity," says Proparco regional director (South Asia) Diane Jegam.
Proparco supports the growth of a job-creating company committed to the well-being of its employees, women empowerment as well as the sustainable use of resources, she adds.
For the quality of AHL's working conditions and its various commitments towards women empowerment, the project qualifies for the 2X Challenge, a global gender finance initiative that Proparco has been contributing to since its launch in 2018.
The project also addresses SDGs like SDG-09 by developing operations at best standards, SDG-08 for above average salary package and SDG-05 for the women-dedicated program that will be implemented.
"This partnership with Proparco will greatly support our vision of sustainable factories scoring high on environmental and social compliance standards," comments Ananta Group managing director Sharif Zahir.
Moreover, the Proparco-backed capacity expansion has been completed in record time and the factory is already in operation employing a gender-balanced workforce and contributing to export earnings, he says.
"Further, we are delighted to work with Proparco and look forward to growing this partnership in the coming year," adds Mr Zahir.
munni_fe@yahoo.com