COLOMBO, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka's apparel industry is eyeing exports up to 8 billion U.S. dollars by 2025 after it crossed the 5 billion dollars export mark in 2018, the Joint Apparel Association Forum said in a statement here Thursday.

The total earnings from export of apparel products amounted to 5.05 billion dollars in 2018, registering an increase of 4.79 percent compared to the export turnover of nearly 4.82 billion dollars in 2017.

According to media reports, the Sri Lankan Textile and Apparel industry employs nearly 350,000 workers directly and twice as many indirectly.

The total employment is estimated to be about 15 percent of the country's workforce. The majority of this workforce are women, and Sri Lanka Apparel considers them as the most valuable asset and the backbone of the industry.

The contribution of the textile and apparel industry to the country's GDP is about 6 percent.

"The desire of the apparel industry is to reach a target of 8 billion U.S. dollars by 2025, which requires a 6 percent annual compound growth, which is a very ambitious target," the statement said.