India's finance ministry is reportedly working with the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) to integrate Customs systems to ensure faster clearance. CBIC Chairman Vivek Johri said the department is working on web registration of exports, which would reduce the average release time of consignments/cargoes from ports and airports. "You are familiar with single window in import side. We are trying to introduce something similar in the export side. There are export consignments that require regulatory intervention, say drug controller, other agencies," Johri said. In essence, the departments are attempting to reduce the time between shipments landing in India's ports and reaching their final destination. "We are trying to integrate Customs ICEGATE with these agencies. This will further compress time taken to release export consignments," he added. He said the average release time, which is measured by the time of arrival of goods to the port and their actual departure, of export cargo has been halved. The Trade Facilitation Action Plan, which ends in 2023, has set a target of average release time of 24 hours and 12 hours for exports through sea port and airport, respectively. "There is need for further compression in release time taken by regulatory agencies... The target is quite steep... We are very consciously working on reducing the average release time," Johri said while addressing the CII National Exports Summit. Johri said there is a need to share real time information with exporters, such as the time when the vessel is docking at port for taking the consignment, which will also help cut down on the time to release export consignments.
Source : Economic Times
With taxpayers facing slow functioning of the GSTN portal, CBIC on Thursday said it is examining the proposal of extending the deadline for filing GST returns for September. GSTR-3B is filed in a staggered manner between the 20th, 22nd, and 24th of each month by taxpayers in different states. Thursday being the last day for filing returns for some category of taxpayers, many reported slowness in the portal while filing their monthly GSTR 3B returns. In a tweet, the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) said it has received "an Incident Report" from GSTN regarding slowness in the system along with a proposal for extending the due date. "We continue to monitor the matter closely and the proposal for extension is being examined in consultation with the GST Council so that there is no burden of late fees or interest on the taxpayer," the CBIC said. The GST Network (GSTN) provides the technology backend for the Goods and Services Tax (GST). Infosys is the service provider for GSTN. The GSTN too acknowledged the issue and said it is working to resolve it. "Taxpayers have reported slowness in portal while filing GSTR 3B return today. The persistence of the issue is acknowledged. Technical teams are working to resolve the issue. An incident report has been sent to CBIC for considering extension in the return filing dates," the GSTN tweeted. AMRG & Associates Senior Partner Rajat Mohan said technical glitches in GSTN have once again soured the festive season for tax professionals and corporates. "Small extension of a day or two is inevitable forcing the corporates to work on the weekend," Mohan added. Abhishek Jain, Tax Partner, KPMG, said: "20th of every month is the due date for filing GSTR 3B, and the GSTN has done a good job in handling the traffic so far." "However, for the month of October, the portal displayed some slowness which has been acknowledged by GSTN. As such, CBIC should consider granting the requisite extension to avoid any interest implications for the taxpayers who were not able to file returns due to the glitch," Jain added. India will wait and watch developments in UK: Piyush Goyal (Source: Financial Express, October 20, 2022) At the same time, the minister made it clear that any such FTA has to be fair and balanced and that no deal will happen unless it’s a win-win for both the sides Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Thursday said India will have to “wait and watch” the political developments in the wake of Liz Truss’ decision to quit as the British Prime Minister. He, however, stated that negotiations for a proposed free trade agreement (FTA) with the UK are on track so far. Of course, the Diwali deadline (October 24) for the trade deal is no longer relevant now. The 47-year-old Truss announced her resignation just after 45 days in office. Speaking at a CII event late in the evening, Goyal said: “We will have to wait and see…what happens, whether they have a quick change of the leadership, whether it goes to the whole process…So let us see who comes into the government and what their views are. It’s only after that we will be able to formulate a strategy vis a vis the UK.” Nevertheless, political leaders and businesses across the board in the UK have recognised that it is “very” important for them also to do an FTA with India”, Goyal added. “So, my own sense is that whoever comes into the government will be wanting to engage with us,” he added. Analysts, meanwhile, expect the FTA talks to be substantially delayed. At the same time, the minister made it clear that any such FTA has to be fair and balanced and that no deal will happen unless it’s a win-win for both the sides. “So, we will have to wait and watch. But I would believe that our FTAs with the UK, Canada, EU, one or two more we may announce soon, all that is well on track,” Goyal said.
Source: Business Standard
Union Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Shri Piyush Goyal has said that the world today is looking at India with great confidence. This trust has developed after 8 years of painstakingly building up India’s story. Structural reforms have been the core agenda of the government, helping us to lay the building blocks for the future. He was addressing CII’s 3rd Edition of Exports Summit today. Shri Goyal noted that India’s billion plus population is the boon for the country as it attracts a lot of companies, brings economies of scale and opportunities for the country. Shri Goyal said India must make quality our brand and must strive to ensure that India is associated with High Quality products. Making quality our brand will truly revolutionize the future of India and the possibilities for our export sector to grow much faster, he added. The Minister said that Indian Missions abroad have been asked to provide support to our exporters, help them get new opportunities, new business into those countries. He asked them to start engaging with India missions and seek assistance if they face any difficulty. He said CII acts as a bridge between government and exporters and provides a platform to understand each other better. He urged CII to flag the issues faced by industry and share suggestions with the government to properly address these issues. Minister appealed to large industry players to support and handhold small players so that they can understand the benefits of Quality control orders and focus on meeting quality requirements. He further added that it is also economically prudent to provide good quality goods and services. Emphasizing that reciprocity is the way forward in international trade, Shri Goyal said India must strive for trade practices with other countries on an equal footing. Shri Goyal said Industry must draw learnings from phenomenal success achieved by the IT Sector. He opined that when any sector is allowed to be on their own and succeed based on their competitiveness, the quality of service improves. This coupled with the Indian ecosystem which includes trust, rule of law, decisive, strong government will help capture larger markets. He said that Industry must not not look for protectionism as it will not help it evolve to be able to meet the requirements of consumers. It must strive to focus on sectors where it has a competitive advantage. With the spirit of grasping the competitive advantage, we will be able to expand our businesses, scale up, and improve quality, he added. Shri Goyal referred to Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in his 15th august address this year, wherein he articulated his vision of a developed India by 2047 and getting out of the colonial mindset and getting back to our roots, and focussing on our core strength areas, Shri Goyal said we must go ahead with confidence and a spirit of enterprise, must become entrepreneurs, job creators and not job seekers. Shri Goyal called upon exporters to focus on ‘SPICE’ – sustainability, productivity, innovation, collaboration and excellence. He added that the world is looking at sustainability, productivity in whatever is being produced. He noted that countries successful today are those which focussed on innovation. He urged the industry to imbibe the spirit of competition and yet collaborate with each other, and strive towards excellence.
Source: Orissa Diary
Cotton production is expected to rise in the western/central Indian states of Gujarat and Maharashtra. The output may rise by 16 per cent in these states which will improve the country’s overall production by 12.05 per cent to 344 lakh bales of 170 kg in 2022-23, as per the industry estimates. However, the recent rains may dent this production estimate. In its recent estimate, the Cotton Association of India (CAI) has projected India’s cotton production at 344 lakhs in the current marketing year that began on October 1. As per state-wise estimate, the production may improve from 76.30 lakh bales to 91 lakh bales in Gujarat. Maharashtra’s output may increase from 75 lakh bales to 84.50 lakh bales. The production in Central zone (including Madhya Pradesh where production will be stable at 20 lakh bales) will increase to 195.50 lakh bales from 171.30 lakh bales of last season.
Source: Fibre 2 Fashion
Industry body CII suggested the government a number of measures, including lowering freight and power costs for exporters and setting up a shipping regulator, to promote outbound shipments Industry body CII on Thursday suggested the government a number of measures, including lowering freight and power costs for exporters and setting up a shipping regulator, to promote outbound shipments. CII National Committee on EXIM Chairman and Patton Group's MD Sanjay Budhia also asked for fast-tracking establishment of an export promotion body. There is also a need to do an internal export promotion and marketing exercise to get more businesses on the export markets, he said at the CII's national exports summit here. "Can we consider lower freight and power costs for exporters? It is not required to have subsidies but calibrated rates so that exporters are not cross subsidising other consumers. In this regard, including electricity costs under GST could be a way out to lower tax incidence," Budhia said. He added that the government can consider a carve-out under the national logistics policy for investments in trade-related infrastructure. States should be encouraged to work on industrial park infrastructure, connectivity modes and faster clearances, he said. "Last year Indian exporters faced huge issues due to shortage of containers and high freights charges...With situation stable now, we should have our own shipping regulator and shipping line, which can protect Indian exporters during such turbulent times," he added.
Source: Business Standard
The Andhra Pradesh Department of Handlooms and Textiles has signed an agreement with National Institute of Design, Vijayawada for promotion of education and marketing of handlooms and textiles from the State. The MoU was signed by Minister for Industries, Commerce, Handlooms and Textiles Gudivada Amarnath with the officials of NID on Wednesday. Under this partnership, there will an exchange of knowledge among faculty and students of NID-AP and IIHT, Venkatagiri for strengthening of capacities of both faculty and students with latest technologies and developments. As per reports, collaboration in teaching, research and development studies in the field of mutual interest will also be seen under the agreement. The agreement will allow students and staff to use the library facility of the government and involve the resources of both parties including faculty, staff, alumni, teaching assistants in developing designs and developing prototypes for a handloom product of AP in collaboration with the weavers in practice. Both will work for market study, research and analysis for existing and potential scope for the handloom and allied products of AP like the saris and clothes produced at Uppada, Venkatagiri, Ponduru and other places. As per the MoU, consultation will be made for re-designing the aesthetics of APCO stores with minimum financial commitment.
Source: KNN India
New series to replace ease of doing business, first report likely in April 2024 The ease of doing business series was stopped in September 2021, in the wake of a datarigging scandal involving four countries, including China and Saudi Arabia. Just over a year after discontinuing the controversial ease of doing business series, the World Bank is planning to launch a new system to gauge the business climate of various countries. The first report of the new “Business Enabling Environment” (BEE) project will be released in April 2024. The ease of doing business series was stopped in September 2021, in the wake of a datarigging scandal involving four countries, including China and Saudi Arabia. The new BEE report, however, will have limited coverage of only 40-50 countries in its first edition, a Washington-based spokesperson of the World Bank told FE. “The second report will add a similar number of countries, as will the third report, reaching 120-150 countries going forward,” she said. The World Bank’s last Doing Business Report 2020 had ranked as many as 190 economies, based on their performance in about a dozen indicators. “The gradual increase in country coverage (in the new report) will be accompanied by refinements in the methodology, consistent with improvements in a new measurement project,” said the spokesperson. The multilateral body undertook a “robust stakeholder consultation process” on a preconcept note for the BEE in February-March 2022. This is ostensibly due to the controversy around the earlier system that somewhat dented the credibility of the Bank’s ranking of countries on ease of doing business. It received over 2,000 comments from 410 feedback providers, including donor and client governments, civil society, private sector entities and the academic community, the spokesperson said. “We developed a concept note for the new report, based on this feedback and previous evaluations of the DB (doing business) report, including internal audits, the External Panel Review and the IEG (independent evaluation group) report,” she added. Subsequently, this concept note went through the Bank-wide review and management clearance between April and June this year. “It was discussed with the World Bank Governing Board of Executive Directors. Meanwhile, the team is incorporating feedback and refining the measurement methodology to prepare for testing it in late Fall (through November) 2022. We plan to begin data collection (for the new BEE report) starting in early 2023,” the spokesperson said. The multilateral body was forced to scrap the doing business series last year, after internal audits and a separate independent probe by law firm WilmerHale revealed senior leaders of the Bank, including Kristalina Georgieva, had put pressure on staff to tweak data to favour China. Georgieva, who strongly refuted the findings, now heads the International Monetary Fund. Internal audits had revealed data irregularities in reports on China, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Azerbaijan in the 2018 and 2020 editions. Subsequently, the Bank decided to come out with a new system that would be far more robust and credible than the earlier one. To be sure, no irregularity was detected in the data relating to India, which made great strides in the ease of doing business rankings. The country moved up a remarkable 79 notches over a period of five years to grab a record 63rd spot in 2019, according to the Bank’s Doing Business report 2020. This report had measured regulations in 12 areas to assess the business environment in each economy. Ten of these indicators were used to estimate the ease of doing business score. It was the 17th edition of the series.
Source: Financial Express
The Punjab Government has come up with Ease of Doing Business initiative for companies which wish to start their manufacturing units in the state. As per media reports, Bhagwant Mann, Chief Minister of the state has delegated powers to grant approval of Building Plans and Completion Certificate for standalone industries to Director of Factories. Punjab has textile and apparel manufacturing hub Ludhiana and Jalandhar is also having many textile units. Aman Arora, Minister for Housing and Urban Development (H&UD) said H&UD has delegated powers for approval of Building Plans and grant of Completion Certificate of standalone industries, including compounding of standalone industries, outside MC Limit, to Director of Factories so that the industrialist need not apply at two separate departments for getting the Building Plans of their factories approved. Now, the industrialists can apply for approval of Building Plans directly in the office of Director Factories, Punjab. Since, change of Land Use Permission has already been waived off for the industry, therefore, on receipt of the application, Director Factories shall seek parallel report from District Town Planner (DTP) of concerned District w.r.t. the permissibility of the industry as per the provisions of the Master Plans, Regional Plan, Land Use Plan, Local Planning Area and other sitting guidelines of Housing and Urban Development Department. The DTP concerned shall provide information within 7 working days to Director Factories. The approval of Building Plans for standalone industries shall be issued by the Director of Factories adhering to Punjab Urban Planning and Development Building Rules, 2021. This way the single competent authority shall issue the approval of Building Plans, the H&UD. It is worth mentioning here that earlier some apparel factories which had announced expansion plan in the state, couldn’t expand as they had issues regarding Change of Land Use Permission etc.
Source: Apparel Resources
Investment in education, healthcare and climate change will do more to address inequality Industrial policy is all the rage in western policy circles these days. In the US, the CHIPS and Science Act builds on the 2021 Innovation and Competition Act. Both bills begin with near identical text, as their goal is to support ‘semiconductor manufacturing, research and development, and supply chain security.’ Under these initiatives, the federal government is authorised to spend over $50bn in the next decade to finance the construction of new semiconductor chip factories in the US. A strong stipulation of the financing is that recipients of such funding will be barred from increasing their production of advanced chips in China. The US is by no means alone in its bid. From the European Union to a number of economies in Asia, subsidies, tax incentives and public-private partnerships are on the menu to support domestic high-tech manufacturing. There are many precedents that are considered instructive, from China’s massive allocation to champion domestic industries in recent decades to Japan’s famed Ministry of International Trade and Industry in the 1960s for subsidising domestic research and development to build on foreign technologies. But economic historians point out that the experience with industrial policy is mixed at best. Five decades ago, returns from Japan’s industrial policy interventions on textile and mining sectors were not promising, while even successful entrepreneurs who received public sector support complained about excessive government intervention. Also, as evidenced by successive episodes, whether with respect to Japan in the 1980s or the US presently, successful gains of market share by sectors or companies from abroad led to a chorus of protests from domestic competitors who then lobbied for their own quotas and subsidies, creating a cycle of trade friction and protectionism. Can the public sector find considerable success in picking industry champions and backing them through incentives? It is tempting to look at the experience of East Asian economies and see wisdom in intensive public sector involvement in promoting basic and applied research. But the experience of East Asia is not one of unmitigated success. In addition to Japan’s lack of success in protecting the mining and textile sectors, China’s industrial policy has yet to materialise in major gains at the top end of the technology spectrum. Its record in the semiconductor industry is characterised by tens of thousands of companies seeking government support, with only a few in that cohort showing success in breakthrough developments. Industrial policy is challenging. It requires government officials with little or no specialised knowledge or expertise to track industry trends, identify potential market failures, address supply chain complexities and coordinate across various industry participants. There is an additional foreign policy dimension, which warrants working with like-minded governments as well. On top of this, officials have to avoid regulatory capture, cronyism, corruption and misallocation of capital. History suggests overcoming these challenges is exceptionally difficult; they either lead to reckless funding or exceptionally conservative decision-making, with the middle point often elusive. As seen in the US over the last couple of years, when support gathers for industrial policy, so does a wide variety of political interests. There are numerous instances of linking grants to use of domestically sourced technologies and components, as well as requiring foundations and universities to take into account a myriad of considerations, from rural development to poverty reduction, before spending on research. As noble as these goals are, as far as the highly competitive arena of cutting-edge technology is concerned, it might be better to keep objectives clear and simple. Many billions are needed to develop the latest generation of semiconductors. The US chip companies made a strategic decision several decades ago that the most profitable combination was to concentrate on domestic design while outsourcing manufacturing. This led to massive profits for the companies, but presented an uncomfortable visual of the US’s global share of chip manufacturing declining. Now, in an effort to create domestic jobs and raise the global share, enormous amounts of taxpayers’ funds are being allocated to subsidise those very companies that had made the call decades ago to produce elsewhere. What will the ostensible return of jobs and gains in domestic production garner? Perhaps some political capital under the notion of a more resilient supply chain. What will be lost in this enormous effort is the chance to promote multilateralism, efficient allocation of capital and a truly competitive and dynamic private sector. Beyond the craving for resiliency, there have been other drivers pushing back on globalisation, especially the glaring rise in inequality. It is however doubtful that industrial policy, which is largely geared towards large corporations, would solve that. Arguably, progressive tax and wage policy, skills training and better targeted social safety nets would help reduce inequality far more effectively than massive subsidies to tech giants. Gains from globalisation have not been even, and some course correction is warranted with respect to national security and protection of intellectual property. But the current trend is worrisome, and is likely to reverse the gains from trade over the past several decades. The danger of devoting so much resource to industrial policy goes beyond inefficient allocation of capital and reversing gains from trade. The undermining of multilateralism hurts the ability to deal with global problems, the ones that loom well above great power rivalries. From climate change to the pandemic, existential issues require urgent global co-operation. These epochal challenges will remain insurmountable if nativist policies keep resources and ideas locked inside certain borders. The public sector plays an exceptionally important role in promoting basic research and building physical infrastructure and human capital. Investments in education, scientific undertakings, healthcare and climate change are the elixirs of long-term productivity and prosperity. There is enormous room and promise for state intervention in these areas. Picking future industrial winners is not one of them.
Source: OMFIF
Forty-two per cent of European firms anticipate they will raise foreign direct investment (FDI) in Vietnam by 2022 end, a survey has found. Respondents indicated Vietnam could bolster these FDI levels by reducing administrative difficulties (68 per cent), improving infrastructure (53 per cent), developing human resources capacity (39 per cent) and reducing visa barriers for foreign experts (39 per cent). The Business Climate Index (BCI) survey was published by the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam and produced by YouGov Decision Lab. Despite a quarter of respondents identifying green growth as a key factor in attracting FDI to Vietnam, the number of respondents rated Vietnam's green potential positively decreased from 44 to 32 per cent. Respondents recommended Vietnam should improve its legal framework (92 per cent), infrastructure (87 per cent) and investment incentives (86 per cent) to accelerate green development. The perception of benefits of the European Union-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) has declined by four percentage points compared to the previous quarter. Administrative procedures were cited as the primary reason for this (38 per cent), followed by a lack of understanding of the agreement (18 per cent) and technical barriers to trade (16 per cent). “It is true that we are less optimistic now than we were at the beginning of 2022 due to external factors slowing global growth. The fourth quarter will also likely be less positive than the second or third quarters of the year. Still, these survey results are encouraging. Vietnam will certainly be in a better position in two or three years, demonstrating its place among the most exciting and dynamic business and investment destinations," EuroCham chairman Alain Cany was quoted as saying by a Vietnamese media outlet. BCI results also showed a decline in optimism among European business stakeholders. Nearly 42 per cent of participants anticipate that the economy will stabilise or improve in the fourth quarter this year. This is an 18-point decrease from the previous quarter when 60 per cent held this view. Similarly, the percentage of those anticipating economic deterioration increased by seven points to 19 per cent. Only 2 per cent of respondents reported that they had relocated a significant portion of their operations from China to Vietnam, suggesting that there is still considerable room for growth.
Source: Fibre2 Fashion
Spanish consultancy Sustainable Innovations has partnered with Aligned, a project lining up Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodologies and bio-based sectors, including textiles, for improved environmental performance. Sustainable Innovations will work with 11 partners from seven different countries over 36 months to provide an evidence-based decision-making modelling framework. For this, industries, and representatives of five bio-based sectors: construction, woodworking, textile, pulp and paper, and biochemicals, will share learnings from their activities and provide relevant data in terms of environmental assessments of bio-based products. The new and harmonised modelling framework will be tested and refined via iterative application and improvement. This is designed to maximise industrial relevance and interoperability and allow for assessment studies across the bio-based sectors. The main responsibilities of Sustainable Innovations in this project are to define and implement the communication strategy (corporate branding development, website, social media strategy, etc.), to coordinate the dissemination of Aligned and engage stakeholders around the bio-based industry and the LCA practitioners, and to manage the knowledge and Intellectual Property (IP) that will emerge from Aligned, ensuring widespread adoption of the LCA systemic framework by the bio-based sector. “We are proud of the work we have been carrying out in the past years in the bioeconomy field and we are excited to have the opportunity to continue working in this sector,” says Jesús Serrano, deputy general manager at Sustainable Innovations. “With this project, we have extended our portfolio to a total of 11 initiatives related to the bioindustry, and we hope to keep on bringing Europe to the forefront of the bio-based economy.” With a turnover value of EUR2.3trn (US$2.3trn) and accounting for 8.2% of the European Union workforce, the bio-economy is a central element to the functioning and success of the EU economy, according to Sustainable Innovations. The bio-based industry is the part of economy formed by companies that use biological input (feedstock) to produce material, products. and services. It can be the biomass extracted from natural environment and purpose grown biomass, as well as different forms of biological waste, side streams and residues. According to Sustainable Innovations, the green transition towards a sustainable economy, including the bio-based sectors, is dependent on consistent and comparable product environmental assessment studies. One of these frameworks is the LCA, a modelling approach for the holistic analysis of the impacts, mainly environmental, generated by products, services, organisations, policies, and plans. LCA is a central tool for environmental management and decision support and has become one of the key tools for assisting the direction of the green transition because of the method’s capabilities for assessing impacts in a full system perspective. However, current LCA practices for assessing bio-based products are not homogeneous nor harmonised and Sustainable Innovations says there is a need to solve this fragmentation by delivering one harmonised methodology for LCA of the bio-based sectors, obtained via scientific improvements that overcome the major existing limitations of current methods. Bio-based materials have become a popular innovation within the apparel industry. The Lycra Company and Qore recently entered an alliance to develop a bio-engineered spandex with a 44% lower carbon footprint, while Hyosung TNC, the fibre arm of Hyosung Corporation, has succeeded in extracting spandex from corn and commercialising the world’s first bio-based spandex.
Source: Just Style
Luxury conglomerate Prada Group has teamed up with the United Nations sexual and reproductive health agency (UNFPA) on a fashion training programme for young women in Ghana and Kenya. The pilot programme, ‘Fashion Expressions: The Stories She Wears’, looks to leverage the social and economic power of fashion to promote women’s empowerment and sexual health. As part of the project, 30 women in Ghana and 15 in Kenya will participate and, over the course of six months, will gain knowledge on various aspects of fashion, including design and production, recycled fashion, traditional textile design and financial literacy. In a release, Prada said the programme will also provide educational sessions in sexual and reproductive health, such as the response to gender-based violence, the prevention of teen pregnancies and menstrual health. It builds on the UNFPA and Prada Group’s partnership, which was established in 2021, and will see the duo work alongside various local partners, like Ghana’s International Needs and the Kitui County Textile Centre. The two groups will be further partnering with local fashion brands to facilitate local, long-term employment opportunities for participants. In the release, Mariarosa Cutillo, chief of strategic partnerships at UNFPA, said: “UNFPA is working with creative industries to find innovative ways to support young women from ‘left behind’ communities to access their rights and choices in order to unlock their full potential. “Fashion is a powerful platform to provide long-term, sustainable education and development opportunities across the world. “We are proud to launch our partnership with Prada Group and its people through this impactful programme that focuses on women's economic inclusion, pushes boundaries for sustainable development solutions, and acts as a springboard for further collaboration in the years to come.”
Source: Fashion United
The Lenzing Group, a world-leading provider of specialty fibres for the textile and nonwoven industries, is reinforcing its commitment to circularity by becoming a partner in the Circular and Sustainable Textile and Clothing (CISUTAC) project that is cofunded by the EU. The new consortium was established to support the transition to a circular and sustainable textile sector and, as well as Lenzing, the 27 consortium members include the industry association Euratex, textile company Inditex, PVH, Decathlon and non-governmental organisation Oxfam. For its part, Lenzing is focusing on the development of recycling processes for cellulose fibres in line with its own corporate strategy, the company said in a media statement. Change is urgently required in the textile and clothing industry as it is one of the most harmful sectors to the environment, generating 40 million tonnes of waste every year. The aim of the consortium is to prevent, identify and eliminate barriers to the circularity of the clothing chain. In recent years, Lenzing has set itself the target of actively promoting circularity, reducing the consumption of resources, avoiding environmental pollution and waste, increasing value creation and resource efficiency, and mitigating the negative social impact on people. These goals have always been firmly anchored in the company’s strategy. “At Lenzing, we work hard on a daily basis to make our industry more sustainable and promote the transformation of the textile business from a linear to a circular model. This approach is firmly anchored in our strategy and corporate values. Thus, I am delighted that as a champion of sustainability, we can also make a valuable contribution by participating in this project thanks to our commitment and the solutions we offer,” said Stephan Sielaff, CEO of the Lenzing Group. “Effective textile recycling is one of the most important and complex core issues facing the textile industry in the years to come. By pooling expertise and working with partners along the value chain, we can accelerate this vital process and forge ahead with finding solutions,” commented Sonja Zak, head of circularity initiative at Lenzing. CISUTAC aims to remove current bottlenecks to enhance textile circularity in Europe. Its goal is to minimise the sector’s total environmental impact by developing sustainable, novel and inclusive large-scale European value chains. As a pioneer of circularity, Lenzing is making crucial progress in this field thanks to its expertise. Lenzing has been developing and promoting innovation in recycling for many years (e.g., its REFIBRA and Eco Cycle technology) to provide solutions to the problem of global textile waste. To further promote the issue of circularity, Lenzing signed a cooperation agreement with the Swedish pulp producer Södra in 2021. In the course of this collaboration, the two global market leaders will pool their knowledge and jointly develop new processes for recycling used textiles.
Source: Fibre 2 Fashion
