Dayanidhi Maran began his tenure as the Union minister of textiles with a promise of creating 10 million employment opportunities over the next five years in the labour intensive sector, which is witnessing job losses because of shrinking global demand.
Further, he said, attracting investments would be his thrust area to push industry growth rate to 8-10 per cent, from the current level of 6 per cent. Towards this, the ministry plans to attract investments worth Rs 1,55,000 crore over the next five years.
During the last UPA regime, the textile industry attracted a total investment of Rs 1,04,506 crore in four years till March 2008. But a majority of this investment was through incentive schemes like Technology Upgradation Fund Scheme (TUFS), which provided interest subsidy on loans taken by firms.
Further, Maran said attracting foreign direct investments in the sector would be one of his priorities in the coming years. Textile is one of the few sectors where there is no cap on FDI.
On being asked about declining exports, he said the ministry will strive to retain the current $22 billion textile exports next year, till there is revival in the US and EU markets.
“We will try our very best to support exporters. I will try to see how to equip exporters to withstand the pressures of import penetration. The ministry has already done a lot of work and I will try to keep the momentum going,” said Maran.
Exports increased by more than $7 billion (50 per cent growth) in the first four years of the previous UPA regime, but declined sharply in the second half of fiscal 2008-09 because of global economic recession.
The minister is planning to meet various industry representatives over the next week to understand their demands and concerns.
Maran, who was appointed minister of communications and information and technology in 2004 and resigned in 2007, said, “Being the textile minister in these troubled times would be a challenge, as unlike my previous ministry, textiles has an extensive tradition and legacy which has to be balanced with modernisation.”
Moreover, the focus would be on working in coordination with other ministries like health and defence to create markets for emerging sector like technical textiles.
