TIRUPUR: Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), which comes under Union Ministry of Textiles has taken up the task of attracting foreign direct investment into by raising the slogan of " come, invest, produce and sell in India", coined by Textiles Minister, Mr Dayanidhi Maran.
The AEPC general secretary Vimal Kirti Singh said, the textile ministry is planning to attract FDI into the segment by promising conducive environment for manufacturing and highlighting the huge domestic market.
As a strategy to encourage FDIs into India, the ministry has planned to take delegations headed by Maran to Switzerland, Italy and Istanbul in phase one from Oct 24 this year followed by visits to France, Germany and even US in the second phase.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the 29th India Knit Fair, which commenced at IKFA Complex here on Wednesday, he said, India required to huge investments to remain viable in the export market.
The country’s share in world apparel exports post quota regime has dropped from 3.2% in 2005 to 2.6% now. "We need to increase the apparel exports from the current US $10.14 billion to US $18 billion by 2015 to maintain India’s share of 3% in the global export market," Mr Singh added.
He said the country needs to increase the capacity along the entire chain of activities namely, spinning, weaving, processing and garmenting in order to grow in textile segment.
"We also need to innovate and go for product and market diversifications to stay in the competition," Mr Singh said, adding, India today doesn’t manufacture 16 products that have huge market in apparel sector worldwide.
He said, the Knitwear Technology Mission would help source the latest technology and its research and development work in manmade fibers would help in developing newer products sans cotton garments.
Mr A Sakthivel, president, Tirupur Exporters’ Association said, the knitwear technology mission would help Tirupur exporters to cater to global requirements round-the-clock. "With cotton based apparels we are able to do business for only three months in a year," he added.
Source : The Economic Times