New national textiles policy on the anvil.

Bangalore:  A new national textiles policy will soon replace the one framed about 13 years ago.

In an effort to address concerns about having adequate skilled work force, labour reforms, attract investments in the textile sector, and to envisage a future road map for the textile and clothing industry, the new policy draft will be placed before the Cabinet for approval after collating data and relevant comments from other Ministries and interest groups.

The objectives of the new policy include developing a vision statement for the textile sector for the next decade to treble market share from the current 4 per cent in the next decade.

The Ministry of Textiles has also been implementing the Scheme for Integrated Textiles Park (SITP) with an objective to provide world class infrastructure facilities for setting up textile units. The scheme would facilitate textile units to meet international environmental and social standards.

Vision 2024-2025

Over the last 10 years, India's textile and apparel exports have grown at the rate of 11 per cent. After the phasing out of export quotas in 2005, India's export performance has been below expectations. There is no reason why India, provided it takes the necessary steps, cannot achieve 20 per cent growth in exports over the next decade. In the domestic market, sustaining an annual growth rate of 12 per cent should not be difficult.

This implies that with a 12 per cent CAGR in domestic sales, the industry should reach a production level of $350 billion by 2024-25 from the current level of about $100 billion for the domestic market. With a 20 per cent CAGR in exports, India would be exporting about $300 billion of textile and apparel by 2024-25. India should by then have a market share of 20 per cent of the global textile and apparel trade from the present level of five per cent. During this period, India should attempt a structural transformation whereby it exports only finished products.

This would imply that growth rates in export of fibre and yarn start declining and growth rates of apparel, homes furnishing, technical textiles and other finished products should grow very rapidly. This would maximise employment generation and value creation within the country.

In the process, investment of about $120 billion would take place and about 35 million additional jobs would be created. Achieving the ambitious vision of exports of $300 billion and 20 per cent share of global trade by 2024-25 is not going to be easy. The sector needs to be made attractive enough for investors. It needs $120 billion worth of investment for achieving the size of $650 billion market by 2024-25. This is a formidable challenge.

In a bid to garner one-fifth of the global textile business and increase exports to $300 billion in the next decade, the government proposes to rejig labour laws, make special efforts to attract foreign investment and enter new markets with high export potential, such as Japan, China, Brazil and Russia.

Labour laws for the high employment generating sector will also be re-visited to make them both investor and labour friendly. The textiles sector is the second largest employment generating sector in the country after agriculture, providing direct employment to about 35 million people.

Source : timesofoman.com