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Mr.
B.K. Patodia, Chairman, TEXPROCIL and Vice Chairman
& MD, GTN Textiles chaired the session. Discussing
the trade trends he said that during five years
between 2000-2004 the world export of textile
and clothing increased by 27% while India’s
grew by 22%. Further, our share in global textile
and clothing declined from 3.1% to 2.97 % in 2004.
But he was optimistic about India’s strengths
like availability of raw material, relatively
cheap labour, wide range of textile products,
managerial and entrepreneurial skills and expert
designers. He reminded the threat of sharpening
competition from countries like China, Pakistan
and Turkey.
Mr.
T. Kannan, Managing Director, Thiagarajar Mills
Ltd discussed the macro economic strengths and
concerns. He said that the re-emergence of India
and China is changing the global balance. Together
they account for about 40% of the world’s
working age population and 19% of the global economy
in purchasing power parity terms. At the present
rate, in 20 years the collective share of India
and China in the global trade will match their
percentage of global population, which is roughly
where they were in the 18th Century before European
colonialism engulfed both India and China. He
discussed the economic development process in
India and China highlighting India’s achievements
and lessons it should learn from China.
Mr.
V.K. Ladia made a presentation on ‘India’s
Textiles and Clothing Exports in Synthetics’
on behalf of Mr. R.L. Toshniwal, CMD, Banswara
Syntex. He spoke on the diversified MMF production
base in India, producing all kinds of man-made
fibres and yarns. The annul growth rate in this
sector has been 14%. Of the total MMF production,
yarn is 28%, the made ups are 19%, fibre is only
5% and fabrics 48%. Discussing the range and flexibility
of production, he said that the capacities allow
small lot processing. Thus particular shade or
a particular colour or a particular pattern in
small quantities can be offered, fetching better
prices.
On
problems, he touched upon higher duty regime for
MMFs, rising crude prices, PTA prices and competition
from China and other South East Asian neighbors
as some of the problems faced by this sector.
The large size expansions and huge production
capacities to cater to small and big lots are
emerging to meet the target of 6.8 billion by
2010.
Ms.
Brenda Jacobs, Attorney, Sidley Austin Brown &
Wood LLP, Washington spoke on “Anti Dumping
Challenges Facing Asian Textile & Clothing
Sector. She warned against the increased use of
antidumping measures by USA and EU and gave suggestions
on how to face this problem.
Mr.
Roney Simon, President, Indo-European Association
for Fashion and Design, Italy spoke on ‘Clothing
markets in Europe’. Discussing the survival
strategies in the changing global scenario, he
said that Europe is trying to identify technological
innovations that can be applied to save its market
status. So, the focus is on specialized products
like protective textiles, water resistant, anti
stain, anti bacterial, insect repellant, anti
inflammable, anti odour, anti wrinkle, and ultra
violet protection, etc. These and other technically
advanced fabrics are the areas where Europe really
is concentrating. He suggested that better processing
is where India’s value addition and concentration
should be. |
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