The Synthetic & Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council

MARKET WATCH 23 FEBRUARY, 2022

NATIONAL

INTERNATIONAL

 

‘India’s textiles exports can touch USD 100 bn from current USD 40 bn in 5 years’

Speaking at the 44th Foundation Day of the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), Textiles Secretary Upendra Prasad Singh said the country’s apparel industry must focus on vertical integration to increase its scale and size and to benefit from the productionlinked incentive (PLI) scheme. India’s annual textiles exports can rise to USD 100 billion in the next five years from the current USD 40 billion, a top official said on Tuesday. Speaking at the 44th Foundation Day of the Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), Textiles Secretary Upendra Prasad Singh said the country’s apparel industry must focus on vertical integration to increase its scale and size and to benefit from the productionlinked incentive (PLI) scheme. Apparel and garmenting is not very investment-centric but it is important from the employment point of view. Perhaps, there is a need for backward integration and more of you can get into integrated value-chain like spinning and weaving,” Singh said. Virtually addressing the event, the textiles secretary said that along with the PLI scheme, the government is committed to making the Prime Minister Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel (PM MITRA) scheme a success. Idea is not to just have a world class infrastructure but also a thriving industry there, he added. Stating that textiles has always been among the top priorities of the government, the secretary said, “There are a lot of big opportunities. The demand continues to be robust and the China plus one sourcing strategy by the west is certainly a great opportunity for us.” Singh said it depends on how good, efficient and integrated the Indian apparel industry is and how it increases its size and scale.  “We should be in a position to breach USD 20 billion apparel exports by next fiscal or the year after that,” Singh said. He added that the country’s textile exports can increase from the current USD 40 billion to USD 100 billion in the next five years.

Source: Financial Express

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Exports up 26.40% to $25.33 billion during February 1- 21

 The country's merchandise exports rose by 26.4 per cent to $25.33 billion this month till February 21 on account of healthy performance by sectors including gems and jewellery, engineering, textiles and chemicals, according to the commerce ministry data. Cumulatively, exports during April-January 2021-22 rose by 46.53 per cent to $335.44 billion as against $228.9 billion in the same period last year. The ministry is hopeful that the exports would cross the $400 billion target by the end of this fiscal.

Source: Times of India

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India looks forward to sign CEPA with GCC nations this year: Minister

Terming the India-UAE Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) signed last week ‘a landmark pact’, Indian commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal recently said it will open up new markets for Indian goods and services. The government looks forward to conclude a similar agreement with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries this year, he said. The agreement will prove extremely beneficial for micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), start-ups, farmers, traders and all sections of businesses, he said. Addressing a press conference in Mumbai, the minister said labour-intensive industries like textiles, gems and jewellery, leather goods and footwear, and food processing would be prominent among those beneficiaries. “It will create jobs for our youth, open new markets for our startups, make our businesses more competitive & boost our economy” he was quoted as saying in an official release. The pact will create a minimum of 10 lakh jobs for Indians. As UAE is a trading hub, the agreement will help offer India market entry points to Africa, the Middle East and Europe, he said. GCC is a union of six countries in the Gulf region—Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman and Bahrain with a combined nominal gross domestic product of $1.6 trillion.

Source: Fibre 2 Fashion

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UAE pact to buck the trend: Five of six earlier FTAs worsened India trade deficit

Lack of stringent norms on substantial local value addition in goods coming from the FTA partners resulted in large-scale illegal dumping of products originating from a third country. Nearly all of India’s prominent free trade agreements (FTAs), which came into force between 2006 and 2011, have exacerbated New Delhi’s trade balance. This significantly contributed to the country’s unease over getting into fresh pacts for about a decade before the government decided to sign a deal with the UAE last week. An FE analysis suggests, in five out of six crucial FTAs involving substantial trade value, India deficit only widened against relevant partners after it sealed the deals. These are India’s trade deals with Asean group, South Korea, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia. Only the South Asia Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement, which replaced a 1993 preferential trade pact, turned out to be a clear winner for India. This has prompted the current government to seek a review of FTAs with key partners, including Asean group, Japan and South Korea to restore greater degree of trade balance. Data show India’s deficit with South Korea, as percentage of total bilateral trade, worsened to 52.7% in the pre-pandemic year (FY20) from 37.4% in FY09, before the FTA came into effect from January 2010. Similarly, the deficit with Japan aggravated from 25.8% of bilateral trade to 46.7% and with Asean, it rose to 27.4% from 15.6%. Importantly, trade balance with Singapore swung from a surplus (to the tune of 20.3% of bilateral trade before the FTA became effective) to a deficit now. Only in case of SAFTA, the surplus increased, from 64.4% of bilateral trade to 70.2% now. Analysts blame absence of adequate structural reforms to improve broader export competitiveness, imprudent negotiation tactics, non-tariff barriers erected by the trade partners and hasty political and strategic considerations that promoted New Delhi to concede significant leverage for the growing trade imbalance. Of course, some analysts advise against getting fixated with India’s trade deficit with any particular country or group of nations. One must look at overall trade balance, they argue. Some others say despite the deficit, such agreements have raised the flow of trade and enabled India to achieve greater integration with global supply chain. Moreover, there are indirect benefits of free trade. For instance, the easy flow of electronics goods may have caused deficit to rise in this segment but it helped India turn into a software power globally. However, given the broader impact of trade imbalance on the current account and in the interests of fairness in trading system, India is well within its right to review the pacts that haven’t worked in its favour, analysts concur. Lack of stringent norms on substantial local value addition in goods coming from the FTA partners resulted in large-scale illegal dumping of products originating from a third country. Things are, however, expected to be different this time, official sources told FE, referring to the FTA with the UAE. For instance, the UAE will allow as many as 99% of Indian goods at zero duty in five-ten years under the comprehensive economic partnership agreement (CEPA), while India would permit duty-free access to 80% of goods from the UAE now; to go up to 90% in ten years. The UAE is India’s third-largest export destination and bilateral goods trade hit $43 billion in FY21. This is in contrast with the way some other FTAs were negotiated earlier. In the case of Asean FTA, while India scrapped import duties on 74% of tariff lines, Indonesia chose to eliminate the taxes on only 50% products and Vietnam on 69% of items. Moreover, India has tightened the rules of origin and value-addition norms under the FTA with the UAE to address fears of round-tripping and illegal dumping. To be eligible for duty-free access in India, products must have witnessed at least a 40% value addition in the UAE. This is higher than the requirement of 30-35% under earlier FTAs that India has signed.

Source: Financial Express

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Explained: India-UAE trade agreement and why it is significant

India and the UAE have signed an agreement to increase bilateral merchandise trade to $100 billion by 2030. Why is this trade agreement significant? How will the agreement boost bilateral trade? What are some of the goods excluded from the deal? India and the UAE have signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with the aim of increasing bilateral merchandise trade to $100 billion by 2030. Why is this trade agreement significant? The India-UAE CEPA marks the first trade agreement India has made with a major trading partner in over a decade. The last major FTA India signed was with Japan in 2011. The agreement is the first in a series of FTAs that India is pursuing to boost exports sharply to 1 trillion dollars each in merchandise and services by 2030. India is also pursuing FTAs with Australia, UK, Canada, Israel and the EU. Commerce minister Piyush Goyal also said that India could conclude an FTA with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) group of countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE) by the end of the year. How will the agreement boost bilateral trade? Under the agreement, the UAE is set to eliminate duties on 80 per cent of its tariff lines which account for 90 per cent of India’s exports to the UAE by value. This is particularly important for exports in highly competitive areas such as textiles and garments where India exporters have thus far been facing a competitive disadvantage in import tariffs. Commerce secretary BVR Subrahmanyam noted that currently Indian textile and leather exports face a 5 per cent duty in the UAE while the products of competitors in Vietnam and Bangladesh have zero duty access. The zero duty access for Indian products to the UAE is set to expand over 5-10 years to 97 per cent of UAE tariff lines corresponding to 99 per cent of India’s exports by value. Key domestic sectors that are set to benefit include, gems and jewellery, textiles, leather, footwear, sports goods, engineering goods, automobiles and pharmaceuticals. The agreement which is expected to come into effect in the first week of May is expected to generate “an additional 10 lakh jobs” in India. What are some of the goods excluded from the deal? India has excluded certain goods from the agreement through a “sensitive list” of products amounting to 10 per cent of tariff lines that are excluded completely from the agreement. Dairy, fruits, vegetables, cereals, tea, coffee, sugar, food preparations, tobacco, toys, plastics, scrap of aluminium, and copper are among the products that are excluded from the pact. Certain other areas such as those that have seen sharp growth in domestic production or areas where the government is incentivising manufacturing through production-linked incentive schemes have also been excluded from the agreement. What are key mechanisms to prevent misuse of the trade agreement through re-exports? The government has emphasised that this agreement contains strict rules of origin to prevent other countries from using the agreement to reroute their exports through UAE to benefit from lower tariffs. Most products require a value addition of 40 per cent in the exporting country under the new agreement to qualify for lower tariffs under the agreement. Sources at the commerce ministry said that aluminium and auto components would require value addition of 45 per cent to qualify as having originating in India or UAE under the agreement. The agreement also requires that any raw agricultural products and oilseeds be “wholly obtained” or “produced entirely in the exporting country” to ensure that no third party products in these categories can be exported under the agreement. The agreement also has safeguard mechanisms that would be triggered if there was a significant surge in imports of a specific product in either country. What are other key new developments? The India-UAE CEPA marked the first time India had included a chapter on digital trade in an FTA indicating India’s willingness to discuss this topic in bilateral agreements. India has previously refused to enter discussions on e-commerce at the WTO over concerns that e-commerce rules being proposed at the WTO could harm domestic trade. The digital trade chapter of the agreement is applicable on a “best endeavours basis” and is not subject to the dispute settlement mechanism under the agreement. The chapter deals with paperless trading, consumer protection, unsolicited commercial electronic messages, personal data protection, cross border flow of information and cooperation on digital products and electronic payments, according to government officials. Commerce secretary BVR Subrahmanyam said that there would be regular contact between regulatory bodies on both sides to harmonise regulatory standards on managing digital trade between India and the UAE. “We are discussing digital trade with the UK, Canada, Australia, EU,” commerce secretary BVR Subrahmanyam said.

Source: Indian Express

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Pune Inc: With leaves as raw material, startup turning sustainable fashion into business idea

Shraddha Joshi-Barde retails apparel and home decor items in which the texture, shape and colour come from leaves, barks and twigs, without the use of chemical or synthetic dye. Shraddha Joshi-Barde goes about collecting fallen leaves, twigs and barks of trees in interesting shapes and colours in her Pune neighbourhood. What she does next with these sustains one of India’s few e-prints textile businesses. Joshi-Barde retails apparel and home decor items in which the texture, shape and colour come from leaves, barks and twigs, without the use of chemical or synthetic dye. The bootstrapped company, named Leafage, despite taking a hit during the pandemic, has seen its sales picking up and several designs, such as mul-cotton dupatta with marigold prints and cushion covers with oxalis prints, are sold out. “The challenge in botanical print or eco print products is that a client needs to understand it before buying. By looking at a leaf, you cannot confirm if it will print. Not all leaves print. A few leaves have colour pigments apart from chlorophyll and they print well, but we only come to know this only when we carry out testing, placing the leaf onto the fabric and treating it. Only when you open the bundle, do you come to know if the colour and texture have been imprinted on the fabric,” she says. The natural dyes used in the fabrics are “99 per cent Ayurvedic medicinal products”, such as pomegranate seeds. The result is that the colours are subtle, unlike the bright tones you get from chemical dues. The United Nations Environment Programme has been ringing the warning bells on the dangers posed by fast fashion to the environment for several years. In a report, it has said: “Fashion revolves around the latest trends but is the industry behind the curve on the only trend that ultimately matters – the need to radically alter our patterns of consumption to ensure the survival of the planet? The fashion industry produces between two and eight per cent of global carbon emissions. Textile dyeing is the second-largest polluter of water globally and it takes around 2,000 gallons of water to make a typical pair of jeans. Every second, the equivalent of one garbage truck of textiles is landfilled or burned. If nothing changes, by 2050 the fashion industry will use up a quarter of the world’s carbon budget. Textiles are also estimated to account for approximately 9 per cent of annual micro-plastic losses to the ocean.” Joshi-Barde says that attitudes are gradually shifting towards sustainable fashion. The Leafage client includes people in their twenties, for whom sustainability is a priority, as well as older women who collect stoles in tussar silk and sarees made with inion skin prints. “The beauty of eco-printing lies in the fact that you cannot control the design. Although I am now five years into this art and craft form, I cannot say how the outfit will look until I open the bundle,” she says. Joshi-Barde was a chartered accountant who took a sabbatical in 2015, undertook a fashion design diploma and interned with an image consultant. In 2016-17, she first saw eco-printing on YouTube and, since there was almost no way to learn the method in India, she enrolled with teachers in the US and Russia. Since the lockdown began to ease, JoshiBarde is planning to continue the awareness activities that were disrupted by the pandemic. “As we become aware of the threat posed by climate change, we are becoming aware of the importance of sustainable lifestyle. The clients of Leafage are discerning because they know that what we wear if important,” she says.

Source: Indian Express

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Aditya Birla Fashion selects Accenture to speed up its digital shift

(ABFRL) has announced its collaboration with Accenture for a digital transformation programme designed to drive growth, increase business agility and improve operational efficiency. As part of its transformation strategy, the retailer has chosen Accenture to design, develop, and deploy an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system based on SAP S/4HANA to streamline business processes and improve visibility and accessibility of data across ABFRL. The new ERP system will support ABFRL which owns brands such as Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly and Peter England across stores in India to manage multiple fulfilment channels and consolidate disparate technology systems. It will be designed to enhance customer service by combining ABFRL’s manufacturing and retail functions into a digital core using SAP S/4HANA for its fashion and vertical business, ABFRL said in a release. Additionally, ABFRL will use Accenture myConcerto, an insight-driven platform, to define a transformation vision and build a value case that guides its manufacturing, delivery and change management operations, and underpins the company’s continuous innovation. Praveen Shrikhande, chief digital and information officer at ABFRL, said, “We are happy to partner with Accenture on a digital transformation program. To stay ahead in today’s fast-changing fashion industry, it is important to spot and react with speed to changes in consumer preferences. The consolidation and digitisation of our core ERP system will help us improve agility and responsiveness in a digital-first world, even as we expand our operations and integrate new businesses to grow our brands and product portfolio, enter new consumer segments, and expand into new markets.” Manish Gupta, lead for Accenture’s Products industry group in India also said, “The disruption of the past two years has made it clear that technology is paramount for businesses as we shape the future of retail. Our collaboration with ABRFL will not only help them build an integrated digital core across manufacturing, wholesale and retail functions to drive operational efficiencies, but also unlock new value for future disruptions and growth.”

Source: Business Standard

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Apparel industry must focus on vertical integration to increase its scale and size and to benefit from PLI scheme : Shri Upendra Prasad Singh

Shri Upendra Prasad Singh, Secretary, Ministry of Textiles has said that the Indian apparel industry must focus on vertical integration to increase its scale and size and to benefit from the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme. Speaking at the 44th Foundation Day of Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) today , Shri Singh said, “sapparel and garmenting is not very investment centric but it is very important from employment point of view. Perhaps, there is a need for backward integration and more of you can get into integrated value-chain like spinning and weaving.” Virtually addressing the Foundation Day, the Textiles Secretary said that along with the PLI scheme, the government is committed to make the Prime Minister Mega Integrated Textile Region and Apparel (PM MITRA) scheme a success. Idea is not to just have a world class infrastructure but also a thriving industry there, he said. Stating that textile has always been among the top priorities of the government, the Secretary said, “There are a lot of big opportunities. The demand continues to be robust and the China plus one sourcing strategy by the west is certainly a great opportunity for us.” Shri Singh said that it all depended on how good, efficient and integrated the Indian apparel industry is and how it increases its size and scale. “AEPC has a big role to play. Let us not get into just the macro figure, let us get into the micro level. Let us go product by product and country by country,” he added. “We should be in a position to breach $20 billion apparel exports by next fiscal or the year after that,” Shri Singh said, adding that the country’s textile exports can increase from the current $40 billion to $100 billion in the next five years. AEPC Chairman, Shri Narendra Goenka shared the journey of the AEPC since its establishment in 1978 from a quota monitoring and export promotion body to the Council that today offers services ranging from skilling, assessment, market intelligence, advocacy, capacity building programs on financial risks, compliance management, IPR issues, AI and technology driven production innovations, lean and six sigma, circularity, sustainability, among others. Shri Goenka listed down the key priorities for the apparel sector namely leverage policy support for improving scales, product diversification, leverage the upcoming FTAs, create new USPs based on sustainability and responsible business, use technology and AI for leaner supply chain, and better branding. AEPC Vice Chairman Shri Sudhir Sekhri spoke about the initiatives taken by AEPC for the holistic growth of the apparel sector. AEPC is the official body of apparel exporters in India, under the aegis of Ministry of Textiles, which provides invaluable assistance to Indian exporters as well as importers/ international buyers.

Source: PIB

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Pak- Uzbekistan bilateral PTA to be finalized in March

Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment, Abdul Razak Dawood on Tuesday said that the Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) to increase bilateral trade between Pakistan and Uzbekistan is expected to be finalized in the month of March 4th. The signing of the agreement will take place during the Uzbek President's visit to Pakistan in 3-4th March, to facilitate bilateral trade and transit trade to boost trade ties between Pakistan, Uzbekistan and also enhance the connectivity with Afghanistan, the Adviser said. The Adviser Commerce Abdul Razak Dawood said this while talking to the media along with the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Investments and Foreign Trade of Uzbekistan Sardor Umurzakov after the meeting with Pakistan's top Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) from different sectors in Islamabad. The agenda of the meeting was how the Ministry of Commerce can increase the exports from the Textile, Food, Information Technology (IT), and Pharmaceuticals sectors and these sectors can establish working relationships with Uzbekistan and the other Central Asian States. On the occasion Razak Dawood said the President of Uzbekistan, Shavkat Mirziyoyev will pay a visit to Pakistan on March 2-3 to discuss ways to improve bilateral economic and trade relations and also will sign various bilateral trade agreements. He said that a strong economic bloc could be established between Pakistan and Afghanistan and the five Central Asian countries, which would enable trade in goods to reach Russia and European countries. The Adviser said he would visit Uzbekistan on February 28 to review the progress made on the PTA in promoting bilateral trade and free trade between the two countries. He said that there is a possibility of mutual agreement for smooth transactions between the central banks of the two countries. In addition, the facilitation of transit trade between the two countries will be discussed. An agreement has already been reached in this regard and now transit trade trucks will be able to supply goods between Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan, which will boost trade in the region, Razak said. Similarly, the promotion of transit trade and the free moments of trucks will usher in a new era of trade promotion in the region, he said. On the occasion, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the trade of Uzbekistan said that the flight from Lahore to Tashkent for air connectivity between Pakistan and Uzbekistan would start in the coming months of March. He said that the 350 million markets of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asian countries could play a significant role in world trade. He said the PTA would be finalized during the visit of the President of Uzbekistan in the month of March. This will increase the opportunities for business communities in both countries and will open up new trade opportunities, he said. The Deputy PM of Uzbekistan said that leadership on both sides agreed to the promotion of bilateral trade and regional economic integration. He said that after the visit of Prime Minister Imran Khan in July 2021, new avenues of mutual relations and cooperation were opened between the two countries, which also opened the way for the development of trade and economic relations. He said that the traders and business community of both the countries have to play their due role in promoting trade in the region. In this regard, the Government of Uzbekistan will provide all possible facilities to Pakistani traders. He said that the government of Uzbekistan will take steps to make legal and financial and visa issues as easy as possible for the business community. The business community from the countries of the region would play a vital role in regional economic and trade integration, he said.

Source: Mettis Global

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Turkey textile exporters to benefit from US e-commerce mentoring scheme

Applications have opened for small and medium scale enterprises (SMEs) in Turkey to be matched with US counterparts to help facilitate e-commerce in sectors such as textiles, ready-made clothing, machinery and furniture. Suppliers of textiles and apparel from Turkey to the US are to benefit from a mentoring programme that allows them to review their current cross-border e-commerce processes, increase their business volumes and accelerate their processes. The Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey (TOBB) and the American Companies Association (AmCham Turkey) have taken action to support local entrepreneurs entering the US market and with the support of United Parcel Service (UPS), mentoring services will be provided to selected companies via the new e-commerce mentoring programme. Strategic planning, consultancy and business development support will be given to these companies so that they can mature their e-export processes to the US market. Companies will come together with experienced teams in the field of e-export. Companies will have one-on-one meetings with mentors and will be connected to the ‘Turkey Trade Center’ established by TOBB in Chicago to accelerate their US market share. TOBB President M. Rifat Hisarcıklıoğlu, said: “We continue to provide active support to our entrepreneurs for new trade opportunities. At TOBB, we are working to increase the participation of our SMEs, which are an indispensable element of economic development, in the global value chain and to improve our companies’ access to markets. By enabling our entrepreneurs to reach a larger audience directly, we aim to move them to the next level and benefit from the advantages of e-export.” Last October, Mehmet Kaya, a board member of the Istanbul Apparel Exporters Association (İstanbul Hazır Giyim ve Konfeksiyon İhracatçıları Birliği – İHKİB), exclusively told Just Style the apparel sector in Turkey is looking to build on its longstanding record as a major apparel producer for the US market, offering quality exports at a swifter time-to-market than its key competitors in Asia, especially China. Tankut Turnaoğlu, chairman of the board of directors of the American Companies Association, which represents more than 110 American companies with investments of more than US$50bn in Turkey, stated that they aim to bring together small and mediumsized enterprises targeting the American market with their members, and said: “As the American Companies Association, one of our priorities is to support Turkish companies, to ensure greater participation in the global value chain.” UPS Turkey General Manager Burak Kılıç also emphasised the importance of the project while expressing that the global e-export volume is expected to reach US$2.4 trillion 2025. Kılıç said, “The digital transformation we are experiencing in exports and trade has accelerated in a dizzying way with this expectation. Businesses in Turkey can also be involved in this transformation. This program will open new doors to the participants in terms of e-export.”

Source: Just-style

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Vietnamese products increasingly popular in Hong Kong: Official

Vietnamese products have become more and more visible in the market of Hong Kong (China) thanks to strong trade ties between the two sides, said Vu Thi Thuy, head of the Vietnamese Trade Office in Hong Kong. Vietnamese products have become more and more visible in the market of Hong Kong (China) thanks to strong trade ties between the two sides, said Vu Thi Thuy, head of the Vietnamese Trade Office in Hong Kong. Thuy cited statistics from the General Department of Vietnam Customs showing that twoway trade between Vietnam and Hong Kong rose 18 percent year on year to 13.6 billion USD in 2021, with Vietnam's exports valued at 12 billion USD, up 15 percent. The Hong Kong market accounted for 3.6 percent of Vietnam’s total export revenue, she noted. n terms of investment, Thuy said that as of December 20, 2021, Hong Kong was the fifth largest investor in Vietnam with 2,041 projects worth 27.83 billion USD, focusing on processing-manufacturing, garment and textile, service, real estate and construction sectors. In 2021, 126 new Hong Kong-invested projects were licensed in Vietnam with total capital of nearly 1.7 billion USD, she noted. Thuy said that despite COVID-19, trade between the two sides have remained stable and Vietnam continued to enjoy trade surplus in the market. Vietnam has affirmed its position and production capacity in the global production and supply chains with tighter links with those in Hong Kong. At the same time, Vietnam has been among the top 10 biggest trade partners of Hong Kong for many years. In 2021, Vietnam rose to the seventh position, and the second among ASEAN countries. The ASEAN-Hong Kong free trade agreement, which took effect from 2019, has also contributed to promote two-way trade which has increased over 10 percent each year, Thuy said, adding that more and more Vietnamese products have been sold in Hong Kong. Vietnamese garment, footwear, pork and seafood have been popular among Hong Kong consumers, she said. According to Thuy, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has created positive impacts on the Vietnam-Hong Kong trade and investment cooperation. RCEP, the biggest trade pact in the world, brings together 10 ASEAN member states, along with China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Australia and New Zealand, covering 30 percent of the global gross domestic product (GDP) worth 26.2 trillion USD. In June 2021, Hong Kong filed a request to join the deal. Thuy said that in the time to come, the Vietnamese Consulate General and the Vietnamese Trade Office in Hong Kong plan to implement many activities to promote Vietnamese strong products in Hong Kong as well as in the region and the world, while helping attract more Hong Kong investors to Vietnam.

Source: Vietnam Plus

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Business in global textile value chain to remain favourable: ITMF

On average across all regions and all segments, the business situation along the entire textile value chain is still very favourable with +23 percentage points (pp), albeit lower than compared to November 2021 (+28pp), according to a survey conducted by the International Textile Manufacturers Federation (ITMF) in the second half of January 2022. This high level is remarkable given the fast-rising infection number of the COVID-variant Omicron since the 11th ITMF Corona-Survey. The fact that a rising number of companies find themselves in a satisfactory business situation (48 per cent) is an indication for a strong and broad recovery, ITMF said in a press release. ITMF conducted the 12th ITMF Corona-Survey among more than 270 companies around the world. For the fifth time since May 2021, companies were asked the same set of questions about their business situation, business expectation, order intake, order backlog, and capacity utilisation rate. When it comes to the business expectations in six months, the global textile value chain remains very optimistic. While the balance between more favourable and less favourable has fallen from +33pp to +25pp, it needs to be considered that these expectations are built on a very favourable business situation. Or to put it differently, only 14 per cent of companies are anticipating a less favourable business by July 2022. A look at the different regions has revealed that the business situation is in positive territory in all regions except for East Asia and Africa where the balance between good and bad business situations is negative. The expectations are very positive except for East Asia, the release added. As for the different segments, the downstream segments – weavers/knitters, finishers/printers, and garment producers – are catching up with the upstream segments – fibre producers, spinners, and textile machinery producers. The order intake has fallen from a high level of +40pp in November 2021 to +30pp in January 2022. This is in line with the slightly weaker business situation. Order intake expectations in January remained practically on the same level as in November (+40pp and +41pp, respectively). “Since May 2021, the order backlog is hovering between 2.4 and 2.9 months. The expectations do not indicate a change in the next six months. The capacity utilisation rate continues to increase slowly but continuously since May 2021, indicating that the supply chain disruption is still a big – but hopefully a diminishing – concern,” ITMF explained.

Source: Fibre 2 Fashion

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