The GST Council, in its last meeting, took the decision to correct the inverted tax structure by raising GST from 5 percent to 12 percent for several textiles and apparel (other than fiber and yarn) items from January 1, 2022. associations, has now decided to approach the GST secretariat seeking restoration of the rate of Goods and Services Tax (GST) to 5 percent , CNBC-TV18 reported. “The industry is of the view that textile fabric manufacturers or fabric weavers will see a significant rise in their working capital requirements due to the disparity, as raw material will be taxed at 5 percent and the finished product will be taxed at 12 percent. So, they are seeking a restoration of the old rate of percent,” the source was quoted as saying by the report. Officials told that, “The textiles ministry is opposed to the rate hike and feels that the industry needs relief. Any decision which adds to their troubles needs to be flagged. So, our communication to the GST secretariat is very clear -- maintain status quo on rates and make any change only after a detailed discussion with the ministry and the industry stakeholders”. The industry has been clamoring for a reversal as it feels the move will make its products costlier, which will impact the sale. Earlier this month, Raymond Group CFO Amit Agarwal told ETCFO that gst rate hike will deter demand, and that the company has plans to pass on the full increase.
Source: Economic Times
The commerce secretary said including 21st century issues in bilateral deals would bring both opportunities and challenges for Indian industry The commerce ministry has hinted at a gradual softening of stance on contentious trade issues such as government procurement, e-commerce, and the environment at the World Trade Organization (WTO), by first negotiating such deals bilaterally with countries under ongoing free-trade agreements (FTAs). A large number of countries are negotiating plurilaterals or joint-statement initiatives on 21st century issues such as e-commerce, the environment, and investment facilitation at the WTO. This India has challenged, holding that they do not have the sanction of the multilateral body and must not lead to modifications to its rule book. On Wednesday, co-sponsors of three new environmental initiatives met jointly and agreed to put environmental concerns at the heart of future trade discussions. One hundred and eleven countries are negotiating an investment facilitation agreement. Earlier this month, 67 members of the WTO concluded a plurilateral on services domestic regulations aimed at making it easier for foreign service providers to access, understand, and follow the procedures for getting authorisations or licences for operating in the host country. Though India is not opposed to such agreements at multilateral levels, it is including the same issues in bilateral deals. Answering a question whether India is ready for the new areas it is entering in bilateral trade agreements, Commerce Secretary B V R Subrahmanyam said India did not have a choice. “The question is either you don’t engage or engage. If you want to talk to the EU, the UK, Australia, and Canada, they will say let’s talk environment, gender, and government procurement. While India is not part of the WTO plurilateral on government procurement agreement, it is talking government procurement bilaterally,” he said while speaking at the Confederation of Indian Industry Partnership Summit on Tuesday. Subrahmanyam said though India did not have much experience or capacity in these new areas as the department concerned never looked at international agreements, the bilateral FTAs will build up capacity in a secure environment. “In the WTO, you are facing a full-blown 180 membership. Here we do it bilaterally. Cut our teeth and once you have a certain comfort level, when you have broken down domestic opponents to understand the benefits of these particular areas, then you actually multilateralise it. We actually look at these as stepping stones on which we will build up a larger multilateral agreement. I foresee a future, 10 years down the road when we will be having a different approach at the WTO,” he said. The commerce secretary said including 21st century issues in bilateral deals would bring both opportunities and challenges for Indian industry. “There will be tremendous access to new markets. They will lose a lot of tariff disadvantages they suffer from. There will be a lot of non-tariff barriers which will go away. The FTA with the UAE will open huge avenues for our pharma sector. But on the other side, you are opening up your market. So industry will have to realise that competition will increase. Protectionist barriers will come down to a significant extent. Therefore, to survive, industry has to focus on high value addition; it has to move up the value chain and go for branding. More importantly, Indian companies will have to become members of global supply chains and develop solid market intelligence,” he added.
Source: Business Standard
Government has taken various steps to boost domestic and foreign investments in India. These include reduction in Corporate Tax Rates, easing liquidity problems of NBFCs and Banks, improving Ease of Doing Business, FDI Policy reforms, Reduction in Compliance Burden, policy measures to boost domestic manufacturing through Public Procurement Orders, Phased Manufacturing Programme (PMP), Schemes for Production Linked Incentives (PLI) of various Ministries. To facilitate investments, measures such as India Industrial Land Bank (IILB), Industrial Park Rating System (IPRS), soft launch of the National Single Window System (NSWS), National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP), etc, have also been put in place. As a result, India registered the highest ever annual FDI Inflow of US$ 81.97 billion (provisional figure) in the financial year 2020-21. FDI inflows in the last 7 financial years (2014-21) is US$ 440.27 billion, which is nearly 58% of the total FDI inflow in last 21 financial years (2000-21: US$ 763.83 Billion). Top five countries from where FDI Equity Inflows were received during April, 2014 and August, 2021 are Singapore (28%), Mauritius (22%), USA (10%), Netherlands (8%) and Japan (6%). Computer Software & Hardware sector attracted the largest share of FDI inflows at 19%, followed by Service (15%), Trading (8%) and Telecommunications & Construction (Infrastructure) (7% each) during the same period in the last more than seven years.
Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGoS) &Project Development Cells (PDCs) With a view to support, facilitate and provide investor friendly ecosystem to investors, the Union Cabinet approved constitution of an Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGoS), and also Project Development Cells (PDCs) in Ministries to fast-track investments in coordination between the Central Government and State Governments and thereby grow the pipeline of investible projects in India to increase domestic investments and FDI inflow. p. have now been established in 29 Ministries of the Government of India, headed by Joint Secretary-level officers. All PDCs are executing clearly defined investor engagement strategies, which includes identification of prospective investors, multi-level engagement with investors who have shown interest, active engagement with a wide range of stakeholders to resolve existing investors’ issues, to develop new projects and to promote existing investment opportunities. Estimates point out that a total of 863 Investment Projects are under active consideration by the PDCs with an investment of $121 Billion. This includes 272 Highly Probable (more than 90% probability) worth $41 Bn, 279 Moderately Probable (51-90%) proposals worth $69 Bn and Long Term (less than 50%) projects worth $11 Bn.
Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Schemes Keeping in view India’s vision of becoming ‘Atmanirbhar’ and to enhance India’s Manufacturing capabilities and Exports, an outlay of INR 1.97 lakh crore (over US$ 26 billion) has been announced in Union Budget 2021-22 for PLI schemes for 13 key sectors of manufacturing starting from fiscal year (FY) 2021-22. The 13 key sectors include already existing 3 sectors namely (i) Mobile Manufacturing and Specified Electronic Components, (ii) Critical Key Starting materials/Drug Intermediaries & Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients, (iii) Manufacturing of Medical Devices and 10 new key sectors which have been approved by the Union Cabinet in November 2020. These 10 key sectors are: (i) Automobiles and Auto Components, (ii) Pharmaceuticals Drugs, (iii) Specialty Steel, (iv) Telecom & Networking Products, (v) Electronic/Technology Products, (vi) White Goods (ACs and LEDs), (vii) Food Products, (viii) Textile Products: MMF segment and technical textiles, (ix) High efficiency solar PV modules, and (x) Advanced Chemistry Cell (ACC) Battery. PLI Scheme for an additional sector, Drones and Drone Components, has also been approved by the Union Cabinet in September 2021. With the announcement of PLI Schemes, significant creation of production, employment, and economic growth is expected over the next 5 years and more. The schemes have been specifically designed to attract investments in sectors of core competency and cutting edge technology; ensure efficiency and bring economies of size and scale in the manufacturing sector and make Indian manufacturers globally competitive so that they can integrate with global value chains. It is expected that the PLI schemes will lead to significant creation of production (US$ 504 billion plus), enhance employment (nearly 1 crore plus) and economic growth expected over the next 5 years and more.
Make in India ‘Make in India’ was launched on September 25, 2014, to facilitate investment, foster innovation, building best in class infrastructure, and making India a hub for manufacturing, design, and innovation. The development of a robust manufacturing sector continues to be a key priority of the Indian Government. It was one of the first 'Vocal for Local' initiatives that exposed India's manufacturing domain to the world. The sector has the potential to not only take economic growth to a higher trajectory but also to provide employment to a large pool of our young labour force. Since its launch, Make in India has made significant achievements and is now focusing on 27 sectors under Make in India 2.0. DPIIT is coordinating Action Plans for 15 manufacturing sectors, while the Department of Commerce is coordinating for 12 service sectors. DPIIT is also working closely with 24 sub-sectors which have been chosen keeping in mind the Indian industries strengths and competitive edge, need for import substitution, potential for export and increased employability.
Investment Clearance Cell (ICC) While presenting Budget 2020-21, the Finance Minister announced plans to set up an Investment Clearance Cell (ICC) that will provide "end to end" facilitation and support to investors, including pre-investment advisory, provide information related to land banks and facilitate clearances at Centre and State level. The cell was proposed to operate through an online digital portal. Envisioned as a one-stop for taking all the regulatory approvals and services in the country, NSWS [www.nsws.gov.in], was soft-launched on 22nd September 2021 by the Commerce & Industries Minister, Shri Piyush Goyal. This national portal integrates the existing clearance systems of the various Ministries/ Departments of Govt. of India and State Governments without disruption to the existing IT portals of Ministries/ Departments. Approvals of 19 Ministries/ Departments and 11 States Single Window Systems havebeen on-boarded in Phase I. Complete on-boarding of 32 Central Ministries/ Departments and 14 States would be in next phases, all remaining States will be on-boarded in a phase manner.
One District One Product (ODOP)
Government of India is working on a transformational initiative to foster balanced regional development across all districts of the country. This is called the One District One Product (ODOP) initiative, with the objective of identifying and promoting the production of unique products in each district in India that can be globally marketed. This will help realise the true potential of a district, fueling economic growth, generating employment and rural entrepreneurship. ODOP initiative is operationally merged with the 'Districts as Export Hub' initiative being implemented by DGFT, Department of Commerce with DPIIT as a major stakeholder to synergize the work undertaken by DGFT. The major activities that are being facilitated by DPIIT with Invest India under ODOP initiative are manufacturing, marketing, branding, internal trade and e-commerce. Under the initial phase of the ODOP, 106 Products have been identified from 103 districts across the country. Considerable success has been achieved for boosting exports under ODOP initiative.
Source: PIB
Oxford Economics said the government capex has led the recovery so far, but fiscal constraints limit its ability to keep driving investment. India's growth recovery has been led by capital expenditure push by the government so far, but fiscal constraints might prove to be a challenge going forward in terms of driving investments, global forecasting firm Oxford Economics said on Thursday. It further said structural shifts, such as digitisation and decarbonisation, do provide tremendous investment opportunities. "A rapid investment rebound has underpinned India's growth recovery, sparking hopes of a more sustained turn in the investment cycle," Oxford Economics said. "While we have revised up our investment outlook due to the strength of the capex recovery, we continue to project substantial scarring from the Covid crisis," it added. Oxford Economics said the government capex has led the recovery so far, but fiscal constraints limit its ability to keep driving investment. "Consequently, we see the investment rate peaking in 2022 and aggregate investment remaining 8 per cent below the pre-pandemic baseline even in 2025," it said. In the end, global forecasting firm noted that India's falling savings rate is a constraint on investment. "In the absence of structural reforms to raise the savings rate, we expect the investment rate to settle permanently lower in the long run," it observed. Oxford Economics pointed out that the decline in the share of investment in GDP has been a concern for almost a decade, pushing down India's potential growth to 6.6 per cent in 2012-2019, from 7.2 per cent in 2004-2011. A record pickup in tax collections this year has not been directed towards larger infrastructure spending, it said adding that instead, the central government is on course to overdeliver on the substantial fiscal consolidation already planned for FY22. "Against this backdrop, we are skeptical that the projected spending under the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) will fully materialise," it said.
Source: Economic Times
Members of The Cloth Merchants Association (Vastralatha) staged a protest against the proposed hike of Goods and Services Tax on textiles from the new year, at Vastralatha on Thursday. The cloth merchants said that the government had decided to increase GST on textiles from 5% to 12% from January 1, 2022. They said both the merchants as well as the consumers would be be impacted by the hike in GST and demanded that the central government immediately withdraw its decision. The merchants said that protests would be intensified in the future.
Source: The Hindu
Shoes, perfumes, apparel, cosmetics-all have either become costlier or are set to get pricier. Lifestyle products such as these are seeing a supply crunch due to port congestion, closure of global manufacturing hubs, higher fuel costs, and labour shortages. This has led to inflation in freight and procurement costs, which has already started being reflected in higher price tags at a time when demand for these goods is rising. Apparel has already become 10-15% more costly and there will be another 10% price increase, said people with knowledge of the matter. Footwear has not seen price hikes yet but will become 8-10% dearer, they said, adding that cosmetics will see a 10-15% increase. The supply issue in lifestyle categories is similar to that of cars, smartphones, laptops, televisions and refrigerators, which saw a shortage of semiconductor chips and components, apart from logistics disruptions that are expected to persist until the June quarter. Some see an earlier resolution. "More than supply chain constraints, the bigger issue is freight cost that has gone up substantially," said Devarajan Iyer, CEO at Lifestyle International. Stepping up Domestic Output "At an industry level, it has affected mostly categories that are dependent on imports such as home care, furniture, footwear and cosmetics," he said. "We expect the situation to resolve by February next year as soon as the Chinese new year is over." Companies said they are stepping up domestic production or resorting to pricier shipment alternatives to offset the constraints. "There is an overall pressure in the global supply chain across categories including ours. It is a challenge but we see it as an opportunity for the government to promote the Indian manufacturing ecosystem, in turn reducing dependence on other countries," Puma India managing director Abhishek Ganguly said. "Indian manufacturers have enormous opportunities in the sporting goods industry to cater to domestic as well as global demand. of factories that halted production for several weeks between July and October due to Covid. At their last earnings calls, most global brands, including Estee Lauder, Nike and Skechers, highlighted that global supply chain headwinds are challenging manufacturing and movement of products around the world. "We have faced a lot of issues due to infrequent cargo flights which delay our requirements. The rates of the cost, insurance, and freight (CIF) has drastically gone up approximately from 4% to 8%," said Adi Shroff, chief operating officer at AP Group, which sells Swarovski, Rado and Tissot besides distributing brands such as Guess, Esprit and Just Cavalli. With transit times nearly twice those of pre-pandemic levels, many brands said they are switching to air freight or signing long-term contracts with container firms to get priority shipment slots. "Right from forecasting the global challenge well ahead in time to increasing orders in advance and even shifting to air freight for faster delivery, we are ensuring we have adequate stocks as demand has risen too," said Tushar Ved, president of Major Brands, which sells Aldo and Bath & Body Works products. Companies said pricing is an issue especially for apparel after cotton yarn prices surged over 60% in a year. Factories have been holding on to raw material to hedge against future increases. Due to steep raw material inflation, most apparel companies and retailers have already increased prices by about 10-15%. The government's decision to increase the GST rate on apparel, textiles and footwear from 5% to 12% from January 1 will affect sales of merchandise currently priced below ₹1,000, analysts said. "With persistent inflation and this added increase in GST rates, a further 15-20% price hike in the upcoming season can be expected which has the potential to disrupt the recent recovery seen in consumption in these categories, especially in the economy and mid-segment price," said a recent Yes Securities report.
Source: Economic Times
The consumer sentimentindex in November is far below the pre-pandemic levels though better than November last year, suggesting the economic recovery is excruciatingly slow and uninspiring, the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy said. According to CMIE, the index of consumer sentiments in November 2021 was substantially lower at 43% compared to pre-pandemic month of November 2019 though 16.1% higher than it in November 2020. “No other indicator has been as sluggish in recovery,” it said. CMIE is of the view that no other economic indicator is as important as the consumer sentiments index because it reflects the well-being of households, their perceived growth in income, their expectation of future income streams and their propensity to spend beyond just essentials. “Economic growth is supposed to deliver on these counts and not just on tax collections or freight movement or foreign trade,” it said, adding that even employment is not an adequate measure of economic well-being. CMIE further said that the index of consumer sentiment had reached its lowest in May 2020 when it was over 60% lower than the 2019- 20 level. From there, though, it has scaled back 44%, but that’s only half way to a full recovery. “Unlike most other fast-frequency economic measures there is no V-shaped recovery in consumer sentiments,” it said. As per CMIE, 39% of the households in November reported that their income was lower than it was a year ago and 37% expected their incomes a year ahead to be worse than their current incomes. Only 6% of the households believed that this was a better time to buy consumer durables compared to the conditions a year ago while over 50% believed that this was a worse time than a year ago to buy such durables, it said. “This despondency reflected in poor expectations and the concomitant reluctance to spend is the biggest challenge to India’s recovery from the pandemic induced restrictions that led to the great economic slowdown in 2020,” it added. However, the index of consumer sentiments has risen by 26% from its level in June this year though the pace of growth has slowed down in November to just 1.2% month-onmonth. Worse is that the recent growth has been significantly uneven. “The index of consumer sentiments grew by 18% in urban India between June and November 2021 while it grew by a much faster 30% in rural India in the same period,” it said, adding that with this the gap between rural and urban sentiments has widened. CMIE is of the view that with vaccines against Covid-19 available relatively easily, the greatest uncertainty to renewed growth and optimism is behind us. “But, the scars the pandemic related episode left on the economy principally, low labour force participation rates and low household incomes are yet to heal,” it concluded.
Source: Economic Times
China's textile industry continued steady expansion in the first 10 months of 2021, according to data from the ministry of industry and information technology. The combined operating revenue of major textile enterprises rose by 14.2 per cent year on year (YoY) to top 4.13 trillion yuan ($650.4 billion) during the period, the statistics showed. These firms raked in total profits of 198.3 billion yuan, soaring by 29.7 per cent over a year earlier, the ministry said. China's online retail sales of clothing products grew 14.1 per cent YoY in the January-October period, hitting 3 per cent average growth over the past two years, official Chinese media outlets reported. The country's garment and textiles exports rose by 5 per cent YoY to $256.5 billion in the period, with the exports of clothing products surging by 25.2 per cent to $138.9 billion.
Source: Fibre 2 Fashion
Egypt: PM witnesses signing of credit facility agreement to develop textile industry Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouli on Thursday witnessed the signing of a credit facility agreement and a guarantee contract with global financial institutions to develop the textile industry in Egypt.The agreement was inked with HSBC, UBS Group AG and Credit Suisse.The guarantee contract was signed with UBS Group AG and Credit Suisse. The step comes as part of the government's plan for developing the textile sector, through doubling the production capacity of gins and factories affiliated to Misr Spinning and Weaving Company. The plan is also aimed at establishing seven new gins to manufacture clean and traceable cotton, with a view to providing quality inputs to the garment industry, as well as implementing a project to produce cottonseed oil in cooperation with the private sector. Under this agreement, the Swiss Export Risk Insurance (SERV) would offer credit facility to Misr Spinning and Weaving Company to purchase European machinery and equipment for its factories.
Source: Egypt Today
The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) could reduce COVID-19-induced growth contraction, poverty and inequality trends and spur sustainable and inclusive growth on the continent if stronger support measures targeting women, young traders and small businesses are implemented, according to the Economic Development in Africa Report 2021 published recently by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). The report shows that trade policies alone are unlikely to support inclusive economic growth on the continent. Other measures needed to increase potential distributional gains from regional integration and help ensure inclusive development are cooperation in promoting investment and competition policies, accelerating financing of infrastructure that facilitates rural-urban linkages and providing equal access to socioeconomic opportunities and productive resources. The AfCFTA, under which free trade officially commenced in January 2021, is one of the flagship projects of the African Union’s Agenda 2063, which includes various targets on sustainable and inclusive growth. Economic growth can only be inclusive if it reduces both poverty and inequality, the report says. “The AfCFTA has immense potential to spur economic growth and transform the continent's development prospects if additional measures are taken to realize and fairly distribute its many potential benefits, as these gains will not come automatically,” said UNCTAD secretary general Rebeca Grynspan. “Poverty and inequality are not inescapable. They are products of political choices and public policy. This report will support African governments and development partners to better leverage the AfCFTA to tackle both poverty and inequality to ensure the expected gains from free trade are more inclusive,” he was quoted as saying in an UNCTAD press release. According to the report, growth has been inclusive in only 17 out of 49 African countries for which sufficient household data for between 2000 and 2020 is available. Africa’s economic growth has been poverty-reducing, the report says, but inequality-increasing in 18 African countries and non-inclusive on either dimension in 14 nations. This finding raises the key question of how economic growth through regional integration can contribute to poverty reduction and foster inclusive development, a main objective of Agenda 2063. Africa’s unprecedented growth in the 2000s has not translated into significantly improved livelihoods for most Africans, as the income gap between the rich and the poor has widened. About 34 per cent of African households live below the international poverty line ($1.9 per day), and around 40 per cent of the total wealth is owned by approximately 0.0001 per cent of the continent’s population, according to the report. The report says trade liberalisation, whether bilateral, regional or multilateral, entails some losses of tariff revenues and has redistributional effects. However, more international trade can also generate interregional knowledge spillovers, which could increase efficiency, diffuse technology and redistribute wealth. Intra-African trade is currently low at 14.4 per cent of total African exports. It is comprised of 61 per cent processed and semi-processed goods, suggesting higher potential benefits from greater regional trade for transformative and inclusive growth, the report finds. Informal cross-border trade can account for up to 90 per cent of official trade flows in some countries and contribute to up to 40 per cent of total trade within regional economic communities such as the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). The report says that the continent’s current untapped export potential amounts to $21.9 billion, equivalent to 43 per cent of intra-African exports. It says an additional $9.2 billion of export potential can be realised through partial tariff liberalisation under the AfCFTA over the next five years. Long-term cooperation in investment and competition policies will be essential to overcoming market dominance by a few actors and to reducing structural and regulatory barriers to market entry, the report adds.
Source: Fibre2 Fashion
Favourable and forward-thinking infrastructure has aided the ascent of the textile industry to be on top of the world. Bangladesh has established itself as a major force in the textile manufacturing and exporting industry. Lower wage, favourable business environment, easy transportation facilities as well as government policy support have helped the country become one of the largest exporters of textiles in the globe. Currently, Bangladesh holds a share of about 6 per cent in global market, while China holds a share of 39.3 per cent of global textile market. As a result, Bangladesh can be considered as the manufacturing alternative to China and the second largest exporters in the world. The South Asian nation earns billions of dollars by manufacturing as well as exporting ready-made textile goods. In other words, the textile sector is a multi-billion-dollar industry with Bangladesh exporting worth $30 billion ready-made casual, formal and fashion apparel every year. Compared to other export countries, Bangladesh offers textile clothing at a lower and affordable cost. And, there is a very high chance to achieve more in textile industry. In future, the Bangladeshi textile manufacturing industry is working to achieve $50 billion by 2021. Almost all reputed and famous international branding companies import 'Made in Bangladesh' clothes. The country has earned a great reputation and value in the international market, through promising quality and convenience, which has led to high ranked buyers from all around the world. Bangladesh normally exports its textile apparel to USA, Canada, Europe, Australia, Japan, Asia and many more countries. And some of the world’s top clothing brands who directly import ready-made clothes are Walmart, H&M, C&A, GAP, Target, Zara, TESCO, Levi’s, Carrefour, JC Penney, Adidas, Nike, US Polo, American Eagle, Hugo Boss, Esprit, Mango, Puma, Walt Disney, to name a few. The world’s second-biggest apparel exporter is now home to fashion labels of its own. Bangladesh can attribute this turn of fortune to stable economic growth as the country’s GDP has been on a year long winning streak. Some of the top local fashion brands include Aarong, Cats Eye, Yellow, Ecstasy, Le Reve, Kay Kraft, Rang, Anjans, Texmart, Smartex etc. In fact, the robust growth is no mystery. If China is the factory of the world, Bangladesh is the tailor — and the sector is now beginning to cater to the tastes of domestic consumers.
Source: Khaleej Times
A pact to skill textile workers organised by the European Apparel and Textile Confederation (Euratex) and backed by the EU Commission has been signed by 118 organisations. The TCLF Pact signatories acknowledge the skills challenge in the textiles ecosystem and commit to investing in reskilling and upskilling workers, integrating green and digital skills, and improving the attractiveness of the sector. Members of the Pact will benefit from networking, guidance and resources offered by the European Commission to implement the targets which are proposed in the Pact. The Pact for Skills is part of the EU Industrial Strategy, addressing the competitiveness of 14 critical ecosystems, including textiles. The main aim of the Pact is maximising the impact of investments in improving existing skills (upskilling) and training in new skills (reskilling). To reach such an ambitious goal, the Pact gathers various actors in the textile, clothing, leather, and footwear (TCLF) sectors: industry, employers, social partners, national and regional authorities, education and training providers. These actors should work together and invest in large-scale skills partnerships, guarantee the exchange of best practices and increase the attractiveness of the sector. Specifically, the TCLF Pact for Skills focuses on five objectives and for each of them, the signatories identified a certain number of target actions: • Promoting a culture of lifelong learning for all: one of the actions is to design and roll out courses promoting the latest technologies and digital tools such as VR and AI (digital skills) and promoting durability, repair and waste management activities (green skills), in particular circular design skills. • Building a strong skills partnership with relevant stakeholders: signatories foresee building regional and cross-sectoral partnerships between industry, education providers and authorities, which are adapted to their specific needs. • Monitoring skills supply/demand and anticipating skills needs: to reach it, industry, policy and education stakeholders will establish the TCLF Skills Observatory. • Working against discrimination and for gender equality and equal opportunities: signatories will launch a TCLF manifesto of diversity and supporting initiatives to improve the gender balance and ensure equal opportunities for all. • Raising awareness & attractiveness on the TCLF industries: through dedicated information campaigns, showcasing the opportunities in the sector and promoting mobility for young workers. As of early 2022, the European Commission will offer signatories of the Pact for Skills to benefit from collaboration at EU, national and regional levels and in particular gain access to networking, knowledge and guidance and resource hubs. “Euratex is proud to coordinate this initiative,” says Alberto Paccanelli, Euratex president. “Our companies’ success is based on finding the right people with the right set of skills. This becomes increasingly difficult, so this Pact is a wake-up call to work together and develop a forward-looking strategy, where people are put at the heart of our sector.” The move comes after the European TCLF sectors called for a dedicated strategy to help ensure their survival following the Covid-19 pandemic this summer. Meanwhile, a new UK fashion academy has recently launched in Leicester to help train people in the skills they need to work in the textiles industry.
Source: Just Style
