The Centre is focusing on a ‘Look East’ policy for textile exports, as India's traditional strongholds in the European Union (EU) and the US have been hit by the global economic slowdown, said textiles minister Dayanidhi Maran. Sixty per cent of our textile and clothing exports are currently to the EU and the US.
“We will also concentrate on the US and EU, our traditional markets. We are seeing some signs of recovery in the US, but in Europe, recovery may take a little longer than anticipated and we have to balance the two,” Maran said, while speaking at the platinum jubilee celebrations of the South India Mills Association (SIMA) in Coimbatore last week.
"My new mantra for the textiles sector is ‘manufacture in India, sell in India and make money in India’. It’s the same mantra that I had for the telecom sector. Keeping this in view, we have planned road shows in seven European countries," Maran said.