Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal, who has already held scores of meetings with various state-run as well as industry bodies, has also proposed to reduce the compliance burden of India Inc, which will help boost exports as well. Having hit a monthly record of $35.7 billion in October, merchandise exports dropped below the $30-billion mark in November. Exports still registered a 26.5% rise in November from a year before but it was the lowest growth rate this fiscal. The commerce ministry has asked state-backed export councils and key industry bodies to work more closely with various government departments and overseas missions, and suggest, through research and studies, “relevant areas for intervention”, as part of its broader effort to realise the lofty $400-billion export target for FY22. Having successfully weathered the damage caused by two Covid waves, Indian exporters face fresh uncertainties now from the emergence of a new Covid variant in Africa that can further disrupt the already-burdened global supply chains. For its part, the ministry is planning to bring in a new set of reforms to invigorate special economic zones (SEZs), once considered to be drivers of export growth in future, under an “SEZ-plus” initiative, an official source told FE. The new plan could include revised norms for SEZs to sell in the domestic market at lower duties and easier exit route for loss-making firms in these duty-free enclaves. The ministry also wants industry to take advantage of various production-linked incentive schemes and identify areas of benefits from potential free trade agreements with key economies. It also wants export bodies to raise the issue of non-tariff barriers posed by any country so that New Delhi can put in place appropriate retaliatory measures. At the same time, it has asked industry bodies to be “vocal about local” and more proactive in their approach to bolster exports. Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal, who has already held scores of meetings with various state-run as well as industry bodies, has also proposed to reduce the compliance burden of India Inc, which will help boost exports as well. In September, the government also decided to release `56,027 crore to clear all the pending dues owed to exporters until FY21 under various schemes to ease any liquidity crunch. A major part of the funds will be released in the last quarter of this fiscal. Merchandise exports fluctuated between $250 billion and $330 billion since FY11; the highest export of $330 billion was achieved in FY19. In the first eight months of this fiscal, exports hit as much as $262.5 billion. However, a slowdown in export growth in November, amid persistent bottlenecks in the global supply-chain such as elevated shipping costs and container shortage, brings to the fore new risks. Having hit a monthly record of $35.7 billion in October, merchandise exports dropped below the $30-billion mark in November. Exports still registered a 26.5% rise in November from a year before but it was the lowest growth rate this fiscal. Adding to exporters’ woes, some countries in Europe, a major market, have already imposed travel and other curbs in the wake of the emergence of the new Covid strain, which last week led the World Trade Organization to defer its ministerial meeting. China, another key market for India, has also seen a surge in Covid cases of late. While some experts have suggested against undue anxiety over the ferocity of the new variant, some others have advised a cautious approach.
Source: Financial Express
The last date of disbursement under the scheme has been extended to June 30, 2022 As much as Rs 2.82 trillion of loans have been sanctioned under the Emergency Credit Line Guarantee Scheme (ECLGS) as of November 19, MSME Minister Narayan Rane on Thursday informed the Lok Sabha. The ECLGS is under the operational domain of the Ministry of Finance, Department of Financial Services (DFS). "As informed by DFS, as on November 19, 2021, Rs 2.82 trillion of loans have been sanctioned under the scheme," he said in a written reply. The existing overall guarantee limit under the ECLGS has been enhanced from Rs 3 trillion to Rs 4.5 trillion and the scheme has been extended up to March 31, 2022. The last date of disbursement under the scheme has been extended to June 30, 2022.
Source: Business Standard
The Government vide notification no. S.O. 2119 dated 26.06.2020 has notified the composite criteria of classification of MSMEs based on investment in plant and machinery or equipment and turnover of the enterprises by simplifying the Udyam Registration process for MSMEs by making it fully online, digital, paperless and based on self-declaration. No documents or proof are required to be uploaded for registering as a Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise. Aadhaar and PAN are required for registration. PAN, GSTIN linked details on investment and turnover of enterprises are taken automatically from relevant Government databases. The turnover with respect to exports is not counted in the limits of the turnover for any category of MSMEs. The new criteria become applicable to all States/UTs with effect from 01.07.2020. Promotion and development of enterprises is a State subject. The Central Government supplements the efforts of the State/UT Governments through various schemes, programmes and policy initiatives for promotion, development and enhancing the competitiveness of MSMEs in the country uniformly including tier 2 and tier 3 cities. This information was given by Union Minister for MSME Shri Narayan Rane in a written reply in Lok Sabha today.
Source: PIB
The budget for next fiscal year is to be presented on February 1, in the backdrop of a nascent recovery of the economy, robustness in tax receipts and the continuing need for government support via spending to aid the revival process. Keeping the time constraints in mind, revenue secretary Tarun Bajaj has already met industry chambers such as Ficci and PHDCCI, which have submitted their suggestions for the budget. Bajaj will meet CII representatives on Friday. With the Budget for 2022-23 nearing, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman will meet stakeholders including representatives from industry, agriculture, health, education and economists after the conclusion of the Winter Session of Parliament on December 23 or even before if the session concludes ahead of schedule, sources told FE. The budget for next fiscal year is to be presented on February 1, in the backdrop of a nascent recovery of the economy, robustness in tax receipts and the continuing need for government support via spending to aid the revival process. While the Centre’s fiscal deficit for FY22 is budgeted at 6.8% of GDP, a level much above the FRBM threshold, many analysts expect the actual deficit to remain within the target even with a clutch of additional expenditure commitments that have come up due to enhanced fertiliser subsidy bill, bolstering of free ration scheme and the tax neutralisation scheme for exports. The Centre’s fiscal deficit which widened to a very high level of 9.2% of GDP in FY21 due to Covid-related additional spending and revenue crunch. The announced plan is to reduce the deficit to below 4.5% of GDP by FY26. The Budget play give clarity on how and when the FRBM-mandated level of 3% fiscal deficit will be achieved. Keeping the time constraints in mind, revenue secretary Tarun Bajaj has already met industry chambers such as Ficci and PHDCCI, which have submitted their suggestions for the budget. Bajaj will meet CII representatives on Friday. Early submission of industry demands would help truncate the meeting time of Sitharaman with industry chambers, the sources said. Finance and expenditure secretary TV Somanathan has concluded pre-budget meetings with various government departments on November 12 to take inputs for finalising their revised estimate for 2021-22 and budget estimate for 2022-23. In the meetings, the totality of the requirements of funds was discussed for various programmes and schemes, along with receipts of the departments (such as interest receipts, dividends, loan repayments, departmental receipts, receipts of departmental commercial undertakings). In its pre-budget meeting on November 29, Ficci suggestions include extension of cut-off date by two years for commencing manufacturing to avail concessional tax rate of 15% and reintroduce tax free infrastructure bonds. To widen the tax base and tax to GDP ratio, PHDCCI on Wednesday suggested capping the personal income tax rates at 15% with no exemptions.
Source: Financial Express
By 2026, the only South Asian nation in the UN’s Least Developed Countries list will be Afghanistan. Here’s a detailed look at what it takes for a country to “graduate” to the developing economies club and the implications of such a transition for India’s neighbours. In late November, the United Nations General Assembly decided to move Bangladesh, Nepal and Lao People’s Democratic Republic from the least developed countries category to that of the developing countries club. Earlier in 2018 another of India's neighbours — Bhutan — was bumped up into the developing-country category. The move will boost these countries’ economies and international standing. But what are least developed countries (LDCs)? According to the United Nations, LDCs are “low-income countries suffering from the most severe structural impediments to sustainable development”. The term was introduced in 1971 to establish international support measures for the LDCs — currently numbering 46 — to accelerate their development and catch up with the developing world comprising 125 nations currently.
Source: Times of India
GST collections will improve with rate rationalisation and a broader tax base The November GST collections at ₹1.31-lakh crore are no doubt comforting; it shows that economic activity and consumption are returning to normalcy. The fact that the collections were 27 per cent higher than the GST revenue in November 2019 and the second-highest ever, is largely due to the Centre improving compliance through the use of data analytics to spot evasions and fake invoicing — and by acting stern with those filing late, erroneous or incomplete returns. Indirect tax collections typically tend to be sluggish in periods of tepid economic growth. The collection trends so far this fiscal indicate that revenues could turn robust, once the pandemic abates. That said, the GST system continues to be in a phase of transition; this is reflected in the sluggish annual growth in GST revenues since its implementation in July 2017. If the average monthly collections are analysed, GST revenue has grown at a compounded average growth rate of just 7 per cent between 2017-18 and 2021-22. While part of this slow growth is due to the economic slowdown in 2019-20 and 2020-21, the GST Council has also had to reduce rates on numerous goods and services and provide relaxations and exemptions to smaller businesses — in order to smoothen their transition and reduce pain points. It is, therefore, not surprising that the GST fitment committee is deliberating over increasing revenues from this stream. The current weighted average GST rate of 11.6 per cent is far below the revenue neutral rate — which is the rate at which States can earn as much from GST, as from the taxes that were subsumed in GST. With the compensation cess collections falling short in recent years, the Centre has borrowed to pay the compensation dues to States. While the Centre is in a tight situation, raising the current GST slab rates of 5, 12, 18 and 28 per cent or moving some goods out of the exempted category would not be the right approach. In fact, rates and fitments should be rationalised to make compliance easier, while reducing both the scope and incentives for tax evasion. Going the other way will be inflationary — a common apprehension linked to GST globally — and this will hurt consumption at a time when it is vital to revive it. The GST Council should try to move towards a weighted average GST rate of below 10 per cent in the coming years. The Council should not lose sight of the original intent of the GST system — to expand the tax net by bringing more entities from the informal sector into the formal sector. This will be possible if the tax slabs are rationalised. Return filing and compliance also need to be made more user-friendly, keeping smaller businesses in mind. While the recent hikes in rates for few sectors such as textiles and footwear were carried out with a view to addressing the inverted duty structure, a thorough overhaul of rates across sectors to address such anomalies will be welcome.
Source: The Hindu Businessline
The total cost of the expansion project is funded partly by term loans of Rs 102 crore and balance Rs 35.25 crore by internal accruals. The move is aimed at increasing the capacity of their cotton yarn business by 47 per cent and knitted fabric business by 28 per cent. PV dyed yarn and seamless apparel producer NSE 4.99 % Ltd (SIL) on Thursday announced a Rs 137.25-crore plan for the expansion of its manufacturing facility. This expansion plan, approved by the board of directors, will witness infrastructure development at SIL's manufacturing facility in Bhilwara, Rajasthan, the company said in a statement. The total costs of the expansion project is funded partly by term loans of Rs 102 crore and balance Rs 35.25 crore by internal accruals. The move is aimed at increasing the capacity of their cotton yarn business by 47 per cent and knitted fabric business by 28 per cent. The expansion is expected to increase the company's revenue by 15 per cent from 2022-23. The expansion programme will result in the installation of 32,832 spindles and 6 knitting machines for the manufacturing of cotton yarn and knitted fabric. Sangam India Managing Director S Modani said, "Despite the two unprecedented and challenging years of the pandemic, we are considerably satisfied with our performance where our FY21 revenue stood at Rs 1,353.55 crore. Going forward with the machinery, capacity development, we plan to achieve an increase of 15 per cent in our overall business." Modani added that after the company has set foot in this phase of the infra expansion, "we are aiming to strategically leverage the D2C (director) market and the digitised textile space to further elevate our reach and supply in India and overseas".
Source: Economic Times
RSWM, amongst India’s largest manufacturers and exporters of synthetic and blended spun yarn, is investing close to ₹350 crore across four plants, covering its prime verticals of denim and yarns. Around ₹300 crore of the proposed investments are being made this fiscal and 80 per cent of it will be financed through bank loans. The remaining is via internal accrual. According to Brij Mohan Sharma, Joint Managing Director, RSWM, the capex will be fully operational by FY23. Investments are expected to have a positive impact on the top-line by around ₹575 crore.
Capacity expansion
The additions to RSWM’s denim-making facility at Rajasthan have already been brought on-stream in September, thereby adding around 700,000 metre per month to its already existing 2,100,000 metre per month capacity. Setting up of an additional 18,000 cotton spindles for captive use in denim-making; and another 30,000 spindles for speciality cotton mélange yarn manufacturing – both in Rajasthan – are expected to be complete around January 2022 and around April 2022, respectively.
Expansion of knitting plant
Part of the capex goes towards expansion of RSWM’s knits plant (also in Rajasthan) to 420 tonnes per month that will cater to the current demand for athleisure apparels. RSWM’s capacity at present is 300 tonne per month. Plans are afoot to increase it to 1,000 tonnes over the next 18-24 months keeping in mind the rising demand for athleisure offerings. The segment has seen a nearly 30 per cent growth with branded apparel players expanding their portfolio in categories like track pants, active-wear and so on.
Talks are on to look at underwriting a part of the investment in the vertical by international players, Sharma said. Earlier this year, RSWM sold off the Mayur Fabrics and PV Suiting Global distribution network to Donear Group.
Positive sentiments
For H1 FY22, RSWM reported a PAT of ₹80 crore. It had reported a loss of ₹83 crore in the year-ago-period. Turnover for the first half of FY22 stood at ₹1,695 crore. “We continue to see the rallying effect of the positive sentiments and market recovery on the business in FY22. The yarn business witnessed a sudden surge in demand in H2FY21 and the order book is well placed till upto the mid of February 2022. With ease in restrictions, the denim business is witnessing better demand and traction,” Sharma told BusinessLine. According to Sharma, order books are to the tune of ₹250 crore a month, going by the current run rates, for the months beginning October to January. This means RSWM will be using up its full capacity for these months.
Limited Omicron impact
Nearly 30 per cent of RSWM’s total sales volume comes from exports across 78-odd nations. However, international operations and exports are yet to see an impact from the emerging Omicron Covid variant.“I can tell you the first wave of Covid infections were the worst in terms of effect on business. The second wave did not have that severe an impact on buisnesses. But, it is is still early days to comment on Omicron and impact on businesses. But as of now the impact is nil. We need to watch out,” Sharma added.
Debt reduction
RSWM is also looking at a debt reduction to the tune of ₹200 crore for FY22. RSWM long term debts are to the tune of ₹450 crore which, according to Sharma, is “the lowest in the last 10 years”. Working capital requirements are around ₹350 crore and “nearly ₹150 crore worth of drawing power from banks” remain unutilised. “We are looking at pre-payment of long-term loans which will help us in reducing finance costs. Moreover, we do not see any significant impact on our debt-equity ratio, despite the capex. Our liquidity is also improving,” Sharma said.
Source: The Hindu Business Line
Gartex Texprocess India 2021 hybrid editions all set to open this week to showcase textile, apparel and denim trends. Gartex Texprocess India will provide a strong impetus to localisation Industry’s leading B2B exhibition for garment and textile manufacturing makes a comeback with its first hybrid edition in the post-pandemic market. Gartex Texprocess India will cater to the requirements of businesses engaged in the garment and textile manufacturing, alongside Screen Print India from 3 – 5 December 2021 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. The three-day hybrid fair brings together over 300 brands with more than 800 products on display and a dedicated trend area highlighting denim trends curated using factory waste. The platform will also see the unveiling of “The Denim Pocket Story” showcasing classic pockets and its transformation over the years. After the challenging phase of the pandemic, the garment and textile manufacturing industry in India is preparing to bounce back and attend to the rising industry demands. With an aim to support local businesses in the road to recovery, Gartex Texprocess India, the leading B2B platform on garment and textile machinery, fabrics, accessories, and allied industries is all set to return with its brand new edition this month. Organised by Messe Frankfurt India & MEX Exhibitions Pvt Ltd, the trade fair is gearing up with all the preparations underway. According to a report by ratings firm Infomerics Valuation and Rating, government schemes and initiatives will lead the textile sector to a growth of USD 300 billion by 2025- 26 and a growth of 300% in the next two years. Designed as a dedicated platform for buyers and sellers, Gartex Texprocess India will create a strong business environment where businesses can witness industry’s latest innovations, engage in hardcore networking and explore lucrative opportunities for their respective businesses. Buyers can witness the live product demonstrations of latest innovative machines and solutions offered by the sellers’ network with leading players from the industry. The show will be held for three consecutive days with innumerable business opportunities and boundless knowledge to gain from more than 100 brands on the showfloor, including: AURA, Baba Machines, ColorJet India Ltd, Ramsons Garment Finishing Equipments Pvt Ltd, Jaysynth Dyestuff (India) Limited, and Morgan Tecnica, among others. The show also comprises of focused product zones such as: Digitex, India Laundry, Fabrics & Trims, Screen Print India, Garmenting & Apparel Machinery, and Embroidery Solutions co-located with the Denim Show and Screen Print India. These incorporated shows and focused segments add more weight to the wide areas encompassing the entire gamut of garment and textile manufacturing solutions for the industry.
Industry biggies to be part of the Denim Show A major center of attraction at Gartex Texprocess India, the Denim Show will feature some of the top trends and advancements in the world of denim. Uniting businesses for the first time after the pandemic, the Denim Show aims to provide a strong professional platform for the denim fraternity to witness development of original products and witness an innovative range of denim solutions, fabrics, finishes, and technology showcased by industry’s leading manufacturers such as: Creora, Arvind Ltd., Raymond UCO Denim Pvt Ltd, Reliance Industries Ltd, Ginni International, Jindal Worldwide Ltd and many more. One of the key highlights includes a dedicated trend area for experiencing new denim products curated by the industry including an artistic showcase of “The Denim Pocket Story” which recreates classic denim pockets and its transformation over the years. The trend area has been put together by Padma Raj Keshri, an Indigo Enthusiast who works with waste fabric mainly involved in the post-production of waste denim pieces at the factory level. This Sustainable project was up-cycled and each pocket is handcrafted while the fabric and collections are specially curated from the Indian Denim mills. Commenting on the Gartex Texprocess India physical exhibition 2021, Gaurav Juneja, Director, MEX Exhibitions India Pvt Ltd said: “I am extremely delighted that we are back with the physical exhibitions. It is challenging for the industry to keep up with the demands and supplies in the post-pandemic scenario. Considering the same, we have come up with a wide range of opportunities for buyers to explore and sellers to exhibit solutions related to laundry, fabrics, trims, embroidery, textile & garment machinery along with the co-located events of the Denim Show and Screen Print India. Gartex Texprocess India is proud to say that we are playing a role in the consolidation of the fragmented garment and textile manufacturing industry. And through this expo, we are introducing new ways of networking and thereby wish to have a phenomenal outcome.” As the exhibition’s co-organiser – Messe Frankfurt India’s Managing Director, Raj Manek, shared his thoughts ahead of the anticipated edition: “A huge demand for garment and textile has been building up in the international markets over the last few years. India has a definitive potential to fulfil this demand gap and expand its share in the global garment and textile market. However, for this to happen, it is also extremely crucial to support and provide the right growth impetus for India’s local businesses so as to strengthen the value chain inherently. Delivering to this cause, Gartex Texprocess India aims to create a focused business platform for the garment and textile businesses to collaborate and strengthen domestic manufacturing set-up.” The Digital Symposium of Gartex Texprocess India will not only promote exchange of ideas, but also showcase industry’s latest trends and innovations. Experts from the industry will share insights on valuable industry related topics from ‘Finding a Solution to Sustainable Garment Manufacturing To ‘Carbon Neutrality in Denim Industry’ to ‘Natural products for textile colouration’ and many more.
Screen Print India to host businesses alongside Gartex Texprocess India Held in co-location with Gartex Texprocess India, India’s leading B2B trade fair for the screen, textile, sublimation and digital printing technologies, Screen Print India is also set to make its return in the form of a hybrid edition. Showcasing the latest trends, Screen Print India New Delhi 2021 will showcase top notch innovations and developments in screen and textile printing from brands such as Green Printing Solutions, J N Arora & Co Ltd, Konica Minolta Business Solutions Pvt Ltd, Skyscreen International Pvt Ltd and Zydex Industries among others. Overall, the new edition of Gartex Texprocess India will provide a strong impetus to localisation by reconnecting businesses and supporting recovery and growth of the garment and textile industry, until the conclusion of its threeday fair on 5 December 2021.
Source: Financial Express
The US department of commerce is expected to officially impose tariffs on Vietnamese polyester texturised yarn (PTY) products on December 3 based on the final affirmative determination report published by the International Trade Administration at the end of October. The department till now has maintained its preliminary measures until further notice. The United States had initiated an anti-dumping duty investigation on polyester yarn products imported from Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand last November, signifying the possibility of import taxes for yarn. The department concluded on October 19 that a dumping margin of 2.58 per cent, a decrease of 0.09 per cent compared to the preliminary margin of 2.67 per cent for Vietnam’s Century Synthetic Fibre Corporation. The tax rate for this company is low compared to those of other countries under investigation, which are taxed with 7.45 per cent or more. However, the remaining Vietnamese companies are all subject to a tax rate of 22.36 per cent, down 0.46 per cent from the preliminary margin of 22.82 per cent. In this investigation, “the US still does not consider Vietnam a market economy, and used India’s data for reference,” said Nguyen Phuong Chi, chief strategic officer of Century Synthetic Fiber. “If we can use our documents, we could enjoy a zero per cent tax rate,” he was quoted as saying by a Vietnamese newspaper. Vietnam’s yarn industry reserves more than 70 per cent of its output for export, of which exports to China account for up to 70 per cent. On the other hand, the main input source of the yarn industry is cotton, which is imported with more than 50 per cent from the United States, with the rest coming from Brazil, India, Australia, West Africa and a few other nations.
Source: Fibre 2 Fashion
Export earnings surged 31 per cent year-on-year to $4 billion in November from a year ago, thanks to the rebound in the apparel shipment in the European and the US markets for increased consumers' demand following the Covid-19 pandemic fallout. This export earning from the merchandise shipment in November was the third highest. The highest earnings were recorded at $4.72 billion in October this year and the second highest earnings were recorded at $4.16 billion in September this year. Earnings from the exports have been increasing over the last few months mainly because of the sharp rise of apparel items, which contribute more than 84 per cent to overall annual exports receipts. "The garment shipment will continue to grow up to next January as we are already booked with an increased volume of work orders from the international retailers and brands," said Faruque Hassan, president of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA). He said the shipment of apparel items started soaring in September this year and it continued until November. Shipments of garment items have been rising mainly because of price hike per unit by the international retailers and brands due to increased cost of raw materials such as cotton, chemicals, yarn and fabrics, exporters said. Moreover, the freight charge increased nearly 500 per cent due to a sudden rise in demand for shipment with the improvement of the Covid-19 situation, he said. Secondly, local garments makers have received 20 per cent higher work orders from international retailers and brands over the last one year as buyers are coming here moving away from other countries like India, China, Vietnam, Myanmar and Ethiopia because of competitive prices.
Source: The Daily Star
Representatives of Bangladesh’s textile and readymade garment (RMG) sector recently called for more domestic and foreign direct investment (FDI) in their backward-linkage industries, especially in woven and manmade fabrics manufacturing, to grab the growing global demand for such items. That will reduce the gap between supply and demand of raw materials, and thus, shorten lead time. High value-added and non-cotton textiles sector is a highly potential area of investment in Bangladesh and the RMG industry is increasingly focusing on apparels made from synthetic fibres to meet the rising demand in the global market, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) president Faruque Hassan said. "It is the high time to diversify our export basket to non-cotton, and this is a potential area of investment," he was quoted as saying by Bangla media reports. The primary textile millers can supply only 35 to 40 per cent of required woven fabrics to exporters, the representatives observed at a business session of the recently-held International Investment Summit 2021 Bangladesh. About 75 per cent of the total global apparel consumption is non-cotton, whereas Bangladesh’s exportable garment items are largely based on cotton, which is more than 74 per cent, Faruque said. Of the 433 spinning mills in Bangladesh, only 27 mills produce synthetic and acrylic yarns. Use of local fabrics would be a requirement for Bangladesh to avail the European Union’s GSP Plus facility as soon as the current Everything But Arms (EBA) scheme phases out after the country's graduation from LDC. President of Bangladesh Textile Mills Association (BTMA) Mohammad Ali Khokon welcomed FDI in setting up mills to produce woven fabrics and manmade fibres to fill the current 60 per cent shortage of woven fabrics. He sought policy supports, including tax waiver, for the sector for the next 10 years to attract both local and foreign investment. Executive president of Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA) Mohammad Hatem requested the government to set up more technical and vocational training institutions across the country, so that they, in collaboration with industries, can provide required trainings according to the need of the sectors.
Source: Fibre2 Fashion
The Ministry of Textiles and Jute will celebrate National Textiles Day 2021 on December 4 by honouring seven organisations for their contribution to protecting the textiles sector in the pandemic's aftermath. Textiles and Jute Minister Golam Dastagir Gazi announced this at a press conference organised by the ministry at Bangladesh Secretariat yesterday. The ministry has continued its overall activities to take the textile industry forward on the path of globalisation by creating skilled manpower through the expansion of textile education and gathering technical knowledge with modern technology, he added. The theme of this year's National Textiles Day is "globalisation of the textile sector; development of Bangladesh". The seven include the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association, Bangladesh Textile Mills Association and Bangladesh Garment Buying House Association. The remaining three are Bangladesh Specialized Textile Mills & Powerloom Industries Association, Bangladesh Terry Towel & Linen Manufacturers and Exporters Association and "Bangladesh National Weavers Association".
Source: The Daily Star
A delegation of ‘South India Powerloom Federation’, the confederation of weaving associations in the Southern States of India, along with the Chairman of the Federation Dr. M. S. Mathivanan, visited Sri Lanka on 22 November 2021, under the invitation of the Deputy High Commissioner of Sri Lanka in Chennai Dr. D. Venkateshwaran. As South India is historically the largest contributor to the Powerloom industry in India, the objective of this visit was to strengthen business links between South India and Sri Lanka as well as to seek opportunities to ‘Invest in Sri Lanka’ in the Textile Industry. During this visit, the delegation headed by Dr. Venkateshwaran met the Minister of Finance Basil Rajapaksa, State Minister of batik, handloom, and local apparel products Dayasiri Jayasekara, State Minister of urban development Nalaka Godahewa, Governor of the Central Bank Ajith Nivad Cabral, Foreign Secretary Admiral Professor Jayanath Colombage and Chairman of the Board of Investment Sanjaya Mohottala to discuss new avenues on developing the Powerloom industry in Sri Lanka. Further, the delegation visited the National Chamber of Commerce and the Colombo Business Association together with the Urban Development Authority, to discuss trade and investment opportunities available in Sri Lanka, specifically in the recently established Eravur Fabric Park, which led to several possible investment opportunities in Textile and Apparel Industry as the outcome.
Source: Colombo Page
