Government today notified the Amended Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (A-TUFS) which will provide one-time capital subsidy for investments in employment- and technology-intensive segments of the textile sector. The move is aimed at promoting exports and import substitution. However, the notification did not mention anything on the committed liabilities of around Rs 3,000 crore falling under cases in the blackout and left-out period. The scheme, which has been introduced in place of the existing Revised Restructured TUFS (RRTUFS), will be credit linked and projects for technology upgradation covered by a prescribed limit of term loans sanctioned by the lending agencies will only be eligible for grant of benefits under it. It will be effective for a period of seven years, up to March 31, 2022. "In case the applicant has availed of subsidy earlier under RRTUFS, he will be eligible for only the balance amount within the overall ceiling fixed for an individual entity. The maximum subsidy for overall investment by an individual entity under ATUFS will be restricted to Rs 30 crore," a textile ministry notification said. Moreover, the cases pending for issue of Unique Identification Number (UID) since September 2014 as per records maintained by the Office of the Textile Commissioner shall be covered under the existing RRTUF Scheme. Every individual entity will be eligible for one-time capital subsidy only on the eligible investment, as per the specified rates and the overall subsidy cap. "Industry is happy that the government has recognised the twin potential of the textile sector to generate maximum employment and economic development. However, we hope that the government will take care of the committed liabilities in coming days," Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) Secretary General Binoy Job told PTI. He pegged the quantum of liabilities under the blackout and left-out period cases at around Rs 3,000 crore.
During 2010-11, the scheme was suspended for 10 months, but it was eventually restored as a close-ended scheme and restricted to future sanctions and committed liabilities reported by banks. The close-ended scheme was introduced without sufficient notice from the government for preparation on part of lending institutions. So, those who had invested in those 10 months in the so-called blackout period of 2010-11 were left out and are still awaiting a decision on the eligibility of TUF scheme on the black-out period. The rate of Capital Investment Subsidy (CIS) for garment and technical textile segments has been kept at 15 per cent of the eligible machines, with CIS per individual entity at Rs 30 crore.
SOURCE: The Business Standard
Madhya Pradesh today signed four MOUs with Singapore, including one on a 1,000-megawatt wind energy plant in western part of the state. The Memorandum of Understandings (MoUs) were signed during business seminar where visiting Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan gave an insight into the business potential, assuring that the Indian state has 25,000-hectare land bank for setting up industries. Wind-energy, the biggest of the four investment proposals, was signed by the Department of New & Renewable Energy with Singapore corporation unit, Sembcorp Green Infra Ltd. The other MoUs were signed by the Directorate of Town & Country Planning with Singapore Cooperation Enterprise, Department of Technical Education and Skill Development with ITE Education Services of Singapore, and India's LT Food Ltd with Singapore-based DSM Nutritional Products. These would cover urban planning, capacity building skill training and food processing.
Various studies, options and proposals would be studied and considered in further advancing the proposed ventures under the MoUs. "Madhya Pradesh is industry and investment friendly state," stressed Chouhan, assuring investors that low-cost land parcels are availability around Indore, Ujjain, Jabalpur and Gwalior, the main industrializing cities as well as the state capital of Bhopal. There is no shortage of skilled manpower, power and water for industries in the state, he added, pointing to the availability of raw resources including diamond, coal, copper, limestone, diaspore and pyrophyllite. Chouhan assured investors that the state will continue to build infrastructure, having invested USD 14. 5 billion during financial year 2009-10 to 2013-14.
SOURCE: The Economic Times
The Maharashtra government is set to unveil new policies for sectors such as electronics, retail business or trade, information technology and for entrepreneurs from among scheduled castes and tribes besides single-window approval to boost investment, ahead of the Make in India Week in Mumbai from February 18 to 23, to be launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. With a host of global and top Indian CEOs, besides a few heads of states, expected to attend the event, the state government is of the view that this could be an opportune time to carry out more sectoral and other policy changes to ensure greater ease of business and attract investment at a time when there is a slowdown in the economy. At a recent meeting, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis directed various government departments to complete policy reforms to facilitate ease of doing business. Officials said pruning the number of approvals required for various projects and offering a single-window clearance formed part of these plans.
A new policy on retail business has been thought of to attract growing interest in e-commerce in India and also retail trade and considering the potential for employment. Karnataka has managed to attract a lot of young entrepreneurs in this segment and the state that has strengths, especially in manufacturing, wants to put in place a policy that will attract investment in the services sector. “Our estimate is, we will cap Rs 4.5 lakh crore to Rs 5 lakh crore of investment through Make in India Week. Talks are already under way with global firms to finalise a few agreements in the run-up to the event. The last big foreign direct investment proposal was by Foxconn, which has committed to bringing in over $2 billion,” said a senior official. General Motors and Ford too have agreed to invest in the state to manufacture vehicles. Officials have been told to project a realistic picture of investment proposals in terms of actual projects and not just commitments or MoUs, which often do not translate into actual project spending. Fadnavis said plans to ensure ease of doing business was essentially to cut down on inordinate delays because of complex procedures and multiple rules, which often are overlapping. “Specific reforms are essential to ensure inclusive socio-economic development,” he said. The Make In India event spread across 100,000 square metres will have a special focus on Maharashtra. From discussions on industry, innovations in infrastructure, changing designs in textile to information technology, there will be structured sessions during the event. Over 100 CEOs, including many from across the globe, are expected to be at the event. The Centre has indicated to the state that almost half-a-dozen heads of state and their representatives could attend the event in Mumbai. Make in India Week will be jointly organised by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the Central and state government. There will be 10 exhibition halls, more than 500 exhibitors, 42 seminars and panel discussions across Mumbai.
SOURCE: The Indian Express
The proposed free trade agreement (FTA) between India and the European Union (EU) will benefit both sides and create jobs, trade opportunities as well as facilitate investments, a senior German official said here today. "The FTA agreement between Europe and India will bring advantage to both sides, India and Europe.”It will create trade opportunities, create jobs and facilitate investments. Initially, there will be some losers and winners, but overall there will be winners on both sides," Germany's Consulate General in Mumbai Michael Siebert said. Siebert was speaking at a panel discussion organised by the Indian Merchant's Chamber. The next negotiation meeting is expected to take place next week to discuss these issues in the FTA, he said. On Indo-German partnership, he said, "We need software technologies from India and we can provide engineering expertise from Germany. India has many young people and Germany has job facilities. We invite some young Indian engineers and software people to Germany." Siebert said that as many as 350 business entities from Germany are operating in Pune alone and many more are present across India, all of whom have long-term interest in the burgeoning domestic market.
Consul Generals of as many as six countries, namely Canada, Germany, France, Sweden, Hungary and Israel, participated in the discussion. They expressed optimism about India's growth prospects in coming years, especially given its recent history of robust growth, notwithstanding the global economic slowdown. Canada's Consul General in Mumbai, Jordan Reeves, said that his country would be happy to service the Indian market with various technologies. During the discussion, Indian skills in the areas of information and communication technology (ICT) and software development emerged as a great attraction. Hungary and Israel highlighted opportunities in the field of electronics, water management and pharmaceuticals, while France was keen to take part in infrastructure development. The focus area for Sweden was renewable energy and transport solutions.
SOURCE: The Economic Times
Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) play a crucial role in the export growth of the country, according to N Shankar, Executive Director of Export-Import (Exim) Bank of India. Delivering the keynote address at a seminar on ‘Enhancing foreign trade in India’, jointly organised by Exim Bank of India and Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO) here on Tuesday, Shankar said MSMEs account for 45 per cent of the total export from country. Facilitating export for MSME sector is the focus now, he said.
Decline in exports
Stating that India’s share in world trade is just 2 per cent, he said there is a lot of scope to improve this share. Walter D’Souza, managing committee member of FIEO, said the need of the hour is to increase export from the country. He said the country’s export stood at $174 billion till November. This shows a decline of around $18.5 billion compared to the corresponding period of the previous year, he said.
High transaction costs
Higher transaction costs in the country compared to the other developing nations, and the lack of proper infrastructure are affecting export sector in the country, he said. Though the country claims of improvement in ranking in ease of doing business, some of the smaller nations are doing better than India, D’Souza said.
‘Disincentives’
Stating that Indian exporters are not crying for incentives, he said the exporters in the country are facing disincentives on many fronts. SK Sharma, Joint DGFT (Director General of Foreign Trade), Bengaluru; KT Rai, General Manager of Syndicate Bank; and M Subramanyam, Commissioner of Customs and Central Excise, Mangaluru, spoke on the occasion.
SOURCE: The Hindu Business Line
Islamabad and New Delhi on Thursday gave a rare exhibition of how consultations and mutual agreement can help steer tricky diplomatic negotiations without causing embarrassment to either side. The two governments announced that their Foreign Secretary level talks have been postponed by a week or two. They stressed that the talks have not been cancelled, but postponed after mutual consultations by the respective foreign secretaries. India also welcomed the visit of a Special Investigation Team from Pakistan to probe the Pathankot airbase attack of January 2 and offered "all necessary cooperation" to it. New Delhi lauded Islamabad for having detained a dozen members of terror outfit Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM). India has claimed the JeM, led by its chief Masood Azhar and his brother Rauf Azhar, was behind the Pathankot attack. Ministry of External Affairs spokesman Vikas Swarup termed the detention as an "important and positive first step". He said there was "considerable progress" made by the Pakistan side in the probe. India has been stressing that it is unprecedented for Pakistan to have accepted the possibility that the terror attack may have been masterminded and launched from its territory. Last month, Islamabad had announced the talks between Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and his Pakistan counterpart Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhary for January 15, but there was a shadow on the talks after the attack. The two foreign secretaries spoke to each other on Thursday. They agreed that their parleys would be rescheduled to the "very near future", officials said.
Reports of detention of JeM Chief Masood Azhar carried by the Pakistani media on Wednesday and picked up by the Indian press, turned out to be untrue, but India has not linked the talks to his detention. The news that talks have been postponed was confirmed earlier in the afternoon by Pakistan Foreign Office spokesman Qazi Khalilullah. To questions on the detention of Azhar, he said, "I am not aware of any such arrest." Swarup said the talks have been deferred as the foreign secretaries felt some more time was required before they meet "away from the shadow" of the investigations into the terror strike. In a related development, members of a right-wing group vandalised the office of Pakistan International Airlines on Thursday afternoon near Barakhamba Road in New Delhi. Police sources said the accused are associates of the person who had called up the police last year regarding "beef" being served at New Delhi's Kerala House.
SOURCE: The Business Standard
The government will present its second full-fledged Budget on February 29 that would set a road map for the remainder of its term to accelerate growth, minister of state for finance Jayant Sinha said on Thursday. “We have laid out economic principles very well and we are very confident that we will be able to sustain high growth over a long period of time,” Sinha told the India-Korea Business. Presenting the direction of the government, Sinha said it would be focusing on five core areas — universal social security, national crop insurance, manufacturing, financial sector reforms and infrastructural development — in the country. A major objective of the government is to support and empower the poor, for which, market oriented reforms are necessary, he added. The government is taking measures to increase productivity of agriculture, which is key to improve demand in rural areas. It also announced a new crop insurance scheme to protect farmers from damages due to natural calamity. Earlier this month, finance minister Arun Jaitley said the government will maintain its accelerated tempo in public investment as the Indian economy battles through a global slowdown to achieve higher economic growth. With domestic demand tepid and exports growth rate shrinking, economists in the finance ministry have revised downwards their estimate of the real economic expansion for the current fiscal to 7-7.5% from 8.1-8.5% forecast in February 2015.
SOURCE: The Financial Express
The finance ministry is learnt to have rejected the latest commerce ministry proposal to allow special economic zone (SEZ) units to sell goods in the domestic market at the lowest import duties the country offers to its free-trade agreement (FTA) partners. Already hard-pressed to maintain fiscal discipline, the finance ministry is also unlikely to exempt SEZ units and developers from paying the minimum alternate tax (MAT) and the dividend distribution tax (DDT)–as sought unequivocally recently by both the commerce ministry and SEZ developers–in the upcoming Budget, said a senior government official. The department of revenue feels that permitting the SEZs to sell goods in the domestic tariff area (DTA) at zero duty (the rate at which most products are imported from India’s FTA partners) will provide an unfair duty advantage to SEZ units vis-à-vis domestic manufacturers outside such duty-free enclaves, apart from causing revenue losses to the ex-chequer, another senior official told FE.
According to the current norms, SEZ units have to pay the regular customs duty on a particular product if they sell it in the domestic market. This is because an SEZ is a specifically delineated duty-free enclave and is a deemed foreign territory for the purpose of trade operations, duties and tariffs. One of the officials, however, said the argument of revenue losses doesn’t hold much weight, as the country also loses tax revenue when it imports from its FTA partners. On the claim of injury to domestic manufacturers outside the SEZs if the latter are allowed to sell in the DTA at concessional or zero duty, the commerce department argues that they are in any case at a disadvantageous position vis-à-vis manufacturers of India’s FTA partners. So why not give the same FTA benefits to SEZs and create more domestic employment and also save foreign exchanges? he asked. Importantly, the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) had also supported the commerce department’s proposal. The government imposed 18.5% MAT on SEZ developers and units and DDT on developers in 2011-12 when Pranab Mukherjee was the finance minister, after the revenue department had complained of massive revenue losses due to such exemptions.
Before the MAT and DDT were imposed in 2011-12, growth in exports from SEZs was as high as 121% (2009-10) and 43% (2010-11), far exceeding the increase in the country’s overall goods exports for these years. Such high growth rates dropped consistently since the taxes were imposed and finally exports contracted by 6.6% in 2013-14, compared with the 4.7% rise in overall merchandise exports for that fiscal. The commerce ministry had proposed these moves as it held that while the tax exemption will improve export competitiveness, permission to sell goods in the DTA would boost manufacturing by helping SEZ units utilise idle capacities.
SOURCE: The Financial Express
The rupee hit an over-two-year low on Thursday as a host of factors, including a global equity sell-off, tumbling crude oil prices and a strengthening dollar weighed on it. The Indian unit closed at 67.29 to the dollar, a level last seen in September 2013. It ended the day weaker by about 44 paise over the previous close of 66.85. The rupee opened almost 10 paise weaker over the previous close and touched an intra-day high of 66.95 and a low of 67.30. Market players say nationalised banks sold dollars, apparently at the behest of the central bank, to prop up the domestic currency.
Sensex dips
Meanwhile, the benchmark 30-share BSE Sensex ended 81 points down at 24,772.97. While foreign institutional/portfolio investors net sold shares aggregating Rs. 1,222 crore, domestic institutional investors net bought shares aggregating Rs. 1,526 crore. The rupee had touched an all-time low of 68.85 against the dollar on August 28, 2013. Forex dealers expect the domestic currency to trade in the 66.75-67.50 range in the coming week. They say that the rupee is overvalued on a real effective exchange rate basis.
Reserve levels
As on January 1, 2016, India’s forex reserves stood at about $350 billion. Since end-March 2015, the country saw an accretion of $8.7 billion to the reserves. The RBI’s half-yearly report on management of foreign exchange reserves said that the import cover of India’s reserves increased to 9.8 months as of September 2015 from 8.9 months in March 2015.
SOURCE: The Hindu Business Line
The international crude oil price of Indian Basket as computed/published today by Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell (PPAC) under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas was US$ 26.43 per barrel (bbl) on 14.01.2016. This was lower than the price of US$ 27.32 per bbl on previous publishing day of 13.01.2016.
In rupee terms, the price of Indian Basket decreased to Rs 1773.19 per bbl on 14.01.2016 as compared to Rs 1826.30 per bbl on 13.01.2016. Rupee closed weaker at Rs 67.10 per US$ on 14.01.2016 as against Rs 66.84 per US$ on 13.01.2016. The table below gives details in this regard:
|
Particulars |
Unit |
Price on January 14, 2016 (Previous trading day i.e. 13.01.2016) |
Pricing Fortnight for 01.01.2016 (Dec 12 to Dec 29, 2015) |
|
Crude Oil (Indian Basket) |
($/bbl) |
26.43 (27.32) |
33.58 |
|
(Rs/bbl |
1773.19 (1826.30) |
2234.08 |
|
|
Exchange Rate |
(Rs/$) |
67.10 (66.84) |
66.53 |
SOURCE: PIB
The ‘Make in India’ campaign seeks to make India a manufacturing hub for exports. The endeavour is central to creating mass employment opportunities, which in turn is pivotal to any effort to alleviate poverty. Some 1.25 crore jobs need to be created every year for those who will enter the job market; an additional 15-25 lakh jobs a year must be created for those who are underemployed in rural areas. However, for the ‘Make in India’ dream to be realised, and ramped up to a scale where it can generate those jobs, manufacturers must have a stable and profitable market to sell their goods. Mere incentives for new investments will not create more jobs: they will only render old investments unviable. As the GDP growth and the decline in poverty are at most times moving in opposite directions, and the fact that the domestic market sentiments are currently depressed while the GDP growth rate is moving up, clearly tells us that we cannot have a domestic market-led employment generation to happen even if our GDP growth remains healthy, It has to be driven by export markets. Given India’s very low market share in exports, the country has a huge head room to increase exports of manufactured items should exports become competitive. Our exports, however, are uncompetitive when all the costs are factored in, including the cost of raw materials and duties to which they are subjected.
Boosting exports
For exports to be globally competitive, three conditions must be met: raw materials should be available at (or lower than) international prices; the cost of converting these materials into saleable products must be internationally competitive; and our exports must not be subjected to higher import tariffs in their respective markets than goods from other exporters enjoy. Indian manufacturers are fairly competitive at converting materials into internationally competitive products, thanks to the low cost of our willing-to-be-trained labour. This is despite the infrastructural limitations they face and the relatively higher transaction and logistics costs. But our export competitiveness is severely hampered by the other two factors — higher raw material costs and higher duties imposed by importers. Why are raw material costs high? For one thing, the profit guarantee scheme for monopoly producers gives them undue pricing power. Indicatively, the price Indian consumers pay for metals, cement, caustic soda, viscose, polyester, plastics and tyres is much higher than in most parts of the world.
Undue protection
These industries are cocooned by anti-dumping duties and BIS certification requirements, which give enormous unmerited pricing power to monopoly domestic manufacturers and enable them to overcharge consumers and industry. Overprotected, producers of raw materials have made unproductive investments, including acquisition of heavy loss-making overseas assets, and have become severely uncompetitive vis-à-vis their international peers. Such profligacy has been subsidised by the government, and eventually by taxpayers. And our manufactures and exporters suffer as a consequence of such rent-seeking behaviour. Even companies with captive mines enjoying near-zero cost of ore, coal and limestone seek and get these protections; and they sell their output at prices higher than those that prevail internationally. These protectionist urges run deep. At a time when well-run global companies with a large number of patents are struggling to survive, our ‘monopoly manufacturers’ are seeking ‘price protection’ as a matter of right and fattening themselves.
What makes our manufactured product exports costlier to users in the developed world, the very large consuming markets?
Out of fear of competition, companies well-entrenched in the domestic market are preventing free-trade agreements (FTAs) being signed with huge consumption markets, even with countries where wage costs in those countries are 10 to 20 times higher, like EU, Canada and Australia. If ‘Make in India’ is to become a reality, such rent-seeking ecosystems must be dismantled wholesale. This is the most important reform that will make Indian industry export-competitive. The textile industry alone will be able to generate 25 to 30 lakh jobs a year should it have duty-free access to the European Union, Canada and Australia in the way our neighbouring countries and Vietnam do. The leather industry and other labour-intensive industries will be able to register double-digit export growth. Likewise, engineering exports, castings, forgings, machined components and subassemblies will likely grow at a fast clip.
Funds will flow in
Once India emerges as a competitive manufacturing base, overseas and domestic investments will automatically flow — even without any incentives. That will give the government more fiscal elbow-room to focus on improving infrastructure. In conclusion, the government should critically review the entire regime of anti-dumping duties taking into account the global commodity market situation. Instead of giving untrammelled pricing power to domestic raw material producers, it must factor in the free resources given to them and inhibit them from profiting unjustly at the expense of domestic consumers. To prevent the BIS certification requirement from being misused as a protectionist measure, the government should open up inspection to private labs, which can give quality certification to imported cargo in double-quick time. And most importantly, the government should sign FTAs with countries where high labour costs prevail, so that domestic manufacturers can source raw materials at internationally competitive costs and export to major destinations without suffering import duties and become export-competitive. Both GDP growth and the rate of poverty removal will go up rapidly once we dismantle such rent-seeking ecosystems.
SOURCE: The Hindu Business Line
China's textile and garment exports continued to decline last year, mainly due to the good performance in the previous year and exchange rate fluctuations, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said on Wednesday. The sharply depreciated yen and Euro had a direct negative impact on textile exports, as Japan and Europe have been China's main textile export markets. From January to October in 2015, the textile industry saw positive growth in exports to the United States, Africa, South Korea. Yet exports to other markets dropped during the same period. China's textile export to the European Union reached $44.86 billion, falling by 10.6 percent year-on-year, the export to Japan reached $18.8 billion, dropping 12 percent, and the export to ASEAN countries hit $29.03 billion, slipping 1.7 percent, according to customs data. In November, retail sales revenues of clothing of China's 100 key retail enterprises fell by 5 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, from January to November, national online sales reached 3.45 trillion yuan, surging 34.5 percent year-on-year, and sales of clothing jumped 23.5 percent, the ministry said. As China is undergoing an economic transformation, high-tech industries are springing up in China's developed coastal regions to replace labor-intensive industries such as the textile industry. "Many labor-intensive Chinese industries had already shifted to Southeast Asian countries," said Zhang Jianping, a senior researcher at the Institute for International Economic Research under the National Development and Reform Commission. "The labor costs there are four to five times cheaper than in China."
In the face of new challenges and opportunities, the textile industry is looking to transform by applying new technologies and business models that cover the whole industry chain, including cotton, spinning, weaving and dyeing. In November, retail sales revenues of clothing of China's 100 key retail enterprises fell by 5 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, from January to November, online sales of clothing witnessed booming growth, with sales revenues of clothing jumping 23.5 percent, the ministry said. During the same period, the added value of the textile industry increased 6.4 percent year-on-year, and the sector continued to expand the scale of production. But the decreasing quality of domestic cotton has forced enterprises to largely import cotton from India and Pakistan. In addition, weak domestic consumption, shortage of orders, increasing costs of labor and electricity, and environmental controls have left Chinese textile companies striving to cope with international competition.
SOURCE: The China Daily
Faced by the loss of their traditional export markets because of political and security problems in their neighbourhood, Turkish textile companies are looking to penetrate into new markets to sustain their export growth. At the ongoing four-day Heimtextil show of Frankfurt in Germany, the world’s biggest trade fair for the home-textile and contract textile industry, Turkish exhibitors are trying to intensify their links to Malaysia and the Asean markets. Turkey, as Turkish exhibitors and representatives of various textile and garment associations were saying, is surrounded by a violent neighbourhood: a war-ravaged Syria, an unstable Iraq and a sanction-plagued Russia. The number of Turkish exhibitors at the show has sharply increased from 159 in 2015 to 211 in 2016. M Atilla Bulut, the deputy general coordinator (fairs) of the Turkish Home Textile Industrialists’ and Businessmen’s Association, said in an interview at the show that Turkish exhibitors occupy the second largest display space - about 16,000sq-m - after Germany. “Our advantage over China is our proximity to Europe - we know and understand Europe’s needs and are familiar with the region’s economic and cultural idiosyncrasies. Turkey has a problem on its borders with Syria, Iraq and Russia, even though it has no internal security problem,” Bulut told Bernama. As a result, Turkish exporters are forced to look for markets beyond their borders, to Southeast Asia, where the Asean Economic Community was recently formed. Malaysia, as one of the so-called ‘core countries’ of the community, is seen as an attractive market by many Turkish exporters, some of whom said they plan to visit Malaysia and other Asean countries in the near future to promote their exports.
2015 exports worth RM88 billion
Turkey’s total global textile exports in 2015 amounted to US$14 billion (RM88.33 billion), of which home textiles accounted for US$3 billion. Turkey’s home-textile exports in 2014 amounted to US$3.3 billion. The 2015 shortfall in exports is attributed to the crisis in Russia, which has faced huge sanctions because of the Ukraine crisis, resulting in less buying by its consumers who could not afford to buy more from the US. “We are looking at markets such as Japan, the Asean region and Canada,” Bulut said. Turkey is also organising its own textile trade fair called Evteks, the Istanbul International Home Textiles Exhibition, on May 17-21. ”We are launching a promotional campaign to attract buyers from Europe, the Asean region and other Asian countries,” he added. Luks Kadife T/C Ve San, AS, of Istanbul, which manufactures curtains, upholstery and fabric material for garments, is already exporting to Malaysia and has built up contacts over the year. However, the company is now keen to increase its exports to Malaysia and other ASEAN countries in the face of uncertainties in other markets. It has been shipping mainly to the United States, the European Union and the Middle Eastern and North African countries. “Though our business with Malaysia has been smaller than with our major markets, we consider Malaysia a stable country. China is passing through turbulent economic times. We expect Malaysia, along with Singapore and Indonesia, to grow in the future. “We are going to actively increase our contacts with the Malaysian textile sector. Some 30 per cent of our production is sold in the domestic market while 70 per cent is exported,” general manager Feramin Celiktas told Bernama.
Osman Canik, the chairperson of the Uludag Turkish Exporters’ Association and the vice-president of Elvin Tekstil San Vetic AS, headquartered in Turkey’s textile city Bursa, pointed out that some 1.5 billion potential consumers live within its reach in the direct neighbourhood. Canik expressed hope the war in Syria would soon end and the reconstruction of the country would begin immediately so that hotels, buildings and other infrastructure could be constructed, generating demand for home and other textiles. He said there will be some “good news” in regard to Syria in the second half of 2016. “The slowdown in Europe has adversely affected our business but it is improving gradually. Our major markets are Europe and the Middle East, but we are exporting to the USA, South America and the Far East,” Canik said, emphasising after the latest deadly bomb attack in Istanbul that Turkey is a “very safe and hospitable place, as any other place elsewhere”.
SOURCE: The Malaysiakini
The Pakistan Readymade Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PRGMEA) Chief Coordinator Ijaz Khokhar said that the country’s export of textile and clothing have been declining sharply during the last six months (July-Dec) of 2015 and the government needs to take preventive measures to enhance textile exports. Pakistan’s export market has already shrunk due to high energy cost and discriminating import duties on the industry's raw material and a decline in cotton production, said Ijaz Khokhar. He said that the government should take preventive measures following the EU and Vietnam have reached an agreement for a free trade agreement, as the emerging economy can capture Pakistan export market. Further, PRGMEA has urged the government to address the issues of the value-added textile sector, as the continued drop in exports may further widen due to Vietnam and European Union’s (EU) Free Trade Agreement (FTA).
Experts feared that Vietnam will capture Pakistan textile value-added export market despite having status of GSP Plus because Pakistan is not availing this facility due to very limited product lines mainly due to strict import policy of government. PRGMEA chief coordinator asked PM Nawaz Sharif to personally direct the policy makers for reduction in all input costs otherwise the export-oriented industries would not only close down their operations but millions of workers would also lose their jobs. He said that the value added textile sector is burdened with multiple taxes with high cost of inputs, tariffs of gas, electricity, raw material, and is further harassed due to short supply of all these most essential utilities.
SOURCE: Yarns&Fibers
The country's import of textile machinery grew to $189.970 million in July-November 2015-16, up by 6 percent, official statistics said. Growth in textile machinery import now stands at $9.984 million in July-November 2015-16 as compared to their import of $179.986 million in July-November 2014-15, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics showed. Import of construction and mining machinery shot up to $146.806 million in July-November 2015-16 as compared to their import of $112.446 million in July-November 2014-15, higher by 21 percent or $34.36 million. In November 2015, the country's import of construction and mining machinery soared to $24.686 million from $12.866 million in November 2014, up by 92 percent or $11.82 million.
SOURCE: The Business Recorder
China received USD 126.27 billion in foreign direct investment last year, registering 6.4 per cent year on year increase, despite slowing growth in the world’s second-biggest economy. Foreign direct investment (FDI), which excludes investment in the financial sector, rose 6.4 per cent year on year to USD 126.27 billion in 2015, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said today. Investment in the country’s burgeoning service industry continued robust growth, accounting for 61.1 per cent of total flows during the period. FDI in the manufacturing sector came in at USD 39.54 billion, accounting for 31.4 per cent of the total. Flow to high-tech manufacturing gained 9.5 per cent to USD 9.41 billion. The MOC attributed the growth to the government cutting red tape around investment approvals and accelerating construction of free trade zones. Foreign mergers and acquisitions in China increased sharply, with their share of total FDI surging from 6.3 per cent in 2014 to 14.1 per cent in 2015. The Chinese economy expanded 6.9 per cent in the first three quarters of 2015, the lowest reading since the second quarter of 2009. China is due to release annual growth data next Tuesday.
SOURCE: The Financial Express
