Timex & Fergasam start operations in Mannar

Sri Lanka’s Timex and Fergasam Group (T&FG), a manufacturer and exporter of high quality garments is ready to commence the construction of twin apparel factories in Mannar Industrial Zone approved by Board of Investment (BOI) end of June 2012. This proposed US $ 5 million worth factory, a first in the Mannar region will be ready for commercial operations by January 2013. According to the Group Chairman with the commencement of the new factory complex over 1,200 employment opportunities would be created for the people in the area.

The group is now mainly focused on going green due to the increasing concerns about environmental impact from industries, particularly global warming. Keeping with the principals of minimizing environmental impact, the new building factory premises will incorporate a number of measures to reduce energy consumption and water usage. The cuts in energy use are also expected to directly benefit the company by reducing electricity costs. According to the Group Maintenance Manager the company is planning to install Solar PV system and Net Metering system to the factories where excess energy will be added to the national grid.

The new building factory will utilize energy efficient modern computerized machinery, fuel efficient boilers and air compressors to minimize the environmental impact. “We will install the latest energy efficient air conditioning system in the two new building factories where the cost saving will be one fourth the cost of electricity for air conditioning. This will have less strain on the national grid as well. We will reduce water consumption by using water efficient features such as flush waves, water efficient fixtures and storm water management system to get water for factory use,” said Group Maintenance Manager. Accordingly these energy conservation measures will reduce the carbon footprint by a substantial amount.

Further Mannar is considered as the driest area in the country with a high level of sunlight available throughout the year. Considering this factor T&FG is planning to use natural light to lighten the building. Moreover solar energy and energy saving lamps will be used instead of conventional lighting system.

The construction of the project is totally eco-friendly where all the existing greenery at the site will be relocated. Also the factory will consist of a waste recycle plant.The group is also planning to develop a wind power project in the Mannar Island. This project will bring social and economic benefits to the Mannar district as well as to the country.

In addition to the energy saving environmental friendly projects, the factory will also consist of facility building which has the latest sanitary facilities, meeting areas, cafeteria, training school, lockers for employees, medical centre and the factory premises will be in compliance with all relevant fire and safety requirements. The building will be designed for efficient production, a comfortable atmosphere, and low energy consumption with adequate circulation paths and barrier-free accessibility throughout the building. With this upcoming factory premises employee conditions and living standards in the Mannar district will also improve over time.

The upcoming factories will be the 18th and 19th manufacturing facilities to be set up by the apparel group. Timex & Fergasam currently employs more than 10,000 across its 17 manufacturing facilities with offices in UK and Hong Kong. The group has been in operation since 1976, producing high fashion garments to the leading markets in the EU and the USA.

BOI Chairman M M C Ferdinando stated “Environmental factors are an important variable which international investors take into consideration when making their choices. Sri Lanka has the advantage of having high environmental standards. Already a number of companies that operate under the BOI regime have taken the lead by setting up green factories.”

source- http://www.dailynews.lk/2012/06/20/bus02.asp

“On This Day”

Rosenbergs executed               

 

 

 

 

On this day in 1953, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted of conspiring to pass U.S. atomic secrets to the Soviets, are executed at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining,New York. Both refused to admit any wrongdoing and proclaimed their innocence right up to the time of their deaths, by the electric chair. The Rosenbergs were the first U.S. citizens to be convicted and executed for espionage during peacetime and their case remains controversial to this day.

Julius Rosenberg was an engineer for the U.S. Army Signal Corps who was born in New York on May 12, 1918. His wife, born Ethel Greenglass, also in New York, on September 28, 1915, worked as a secretary. The couple met as members of the Young Communist League, married in 1939 and had two sons. Julius Rosenberg was arrested on suspicion of espionage on June 17, 1950, and accused of heading a spy ring that passed top-secret information concerning the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union. Ethel was arrested two months later. The Rosenbergs were implicated by David Greenglass, Ethel’s younger brother and a former army sergeant and machinist at Los Alamos, the secret atomic bomb lab in New Mexico. Greenglass, who himself had confessed to providing nuclear secrets to the Soviets through an intermediary, testified against his sister and brother-in-law in court. He later served 10 years in prison.

The Rosenbergs vigorously protested their innocence, but after a brief trial that began on March 6, 1951, and attracted much media attention, the couple was convicted. On April 5, 1951, a judge sentenced them to death and the pair was taken to Sing Sing to await execution. During the next two years, the couple became the subject of both national and international debate. Some people believed that the Rosenbergs were the victims of a surge of hysterical anti-communist feeling in the United States, and protested that the death sentence handed down was cruel and unusual punishment. Many Americans, however, believed that the Rosenbergs had been dealt with justly. They agreed with President Dwight D. Eisenhower when he issued a statement declining to invoke executive clemency for the pair. He stated, “I can only say that, by immeasurably increasing the chances of atomic war, the Rosenbergs may have condemned to death tens of millions of innocent people all over the world. The execution of two human beings is a grave matter. But even graver is the thought of the millions of dead whose deaths may be directly attributable to what these spies have done.”