Textile ministry strategises to boost export by 15-20% next plan period

Plan panel in global exports of textiles report says India ranked third largest exporter trailing European Union and China

The textile ministry has made a comprehensive plan to increase export growth rate from present level of 6-10% to 15-20% in next five years, in the 12th plan period. Towards this Planning Commission has already allocated Rs 2,5931 crore to the ministry for overall schemes and the textile upgradation fund will continue.

The report of the Working Group constituted by the Planning Commission on boosting India’s manufacturing exports during 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17), envisages India’s exports of Textiles and Clothing at USD 64.41 billion by the end of March, 2017.

As per the report, in the global exports of Textiles, India ranked as the third largest exporter, trailing European Union and China. In the global exports market of clothing, India ranked as the fifth largest exporter, trailing Bangladesh, Hong Kong, EU and China.

On the other hand, India accounts for 22% of the world’s installed capacity of spindles and is one of the largest exporters of yarn in international market. It has second highest spindleage in the world after China, highest loomage (including handlooms) in the world and contributes about 61% to the world loomage.

Keeping this mind, one of the major strategies adopted to increase exports is to tap new markets in Latin American countries, Eastern European Countries, Middle East.

As part of this strategy, mega textile shows have been held to capture new markets in Japan, South Asia and Latin American countries. Besides, memorandum of understanding (MoU) on international cooperation on Textiles has been signed with the countries like Sri Lanka, Australia, and Czech.

Officials said, this strategy to improve export competitiveness to cater to new markets stem from the fact that most developed countries will see continued decline of their textile and garment industry.

This will create fresh opportunity for exports of developing countries including India. Further, in the next 10 years, China’s Textile and Garment export growth rate is projected to slow down because of rising costs and increasing domestic demand. The export space that is likely to be ceded by China is open to other Asian countries including India.

Secondly In order to improve our competitiveness and thereby increase our textile exports, the focus is on upgrading infrastructure to increase labour productivity/ reducing labour costs, improve the working hours, reduce power cost, transport costs and VAT rates for apparels.

Integrated Skill Development Scheme (ISDS), launched by the Government of India that currently provide training and skill development programmes in the textile and apparel sectors will be further strengthened at a cost of Rs 1900 crores to provide training to 15.00 lakh persons for jobs in the textile and apparel sectors, including Jute & Handicrafts during 2012-17, leveraging the existing training infrastructure within the textile ministry , on the one hand and private sector participation through a PPP Model on the other.
 
Major plan investments to achieve this growth besides overall development of the industry will be aimed at modernisation and technological upgradation, setting up of integrated textile parks, development of mega clusters for power loom, handloom and handicrafts, skill development of the textile workforce, enhancing welfare of the weavers and artisans etc.