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Tex ministry plans conference with various ministries to sort out industry problems

E-Tex Staff - Mumbai

The Union textiles minister, Mr Syed Shahnawaz Hussain has assured the industry that the ministry would make all possible efforts to sort out the various problems faced by the industry. Speaking at an interactive session organised by the Synthetic and Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council (SRTEPC) in Mumbai recently, he said, “The textiles ministry is planning to organise a conference and would be inviting the finance minister, commerce minister and other important persons to improve the coordination and sort out various problems faced by the exporters.”

He further stated, “In view of removal of quotas in 2005, I will suggest to the prime minister to declare 2004 as the ‘Textile Year’ to mark our preparation and efforts to face the new challenges in the quota free regime.”

He further said that the industry’s fear complex at the very mention of China was unwarranted and asserted that the Indian industry had the skills and the necessary value-added products to counter the Chinese threat. He urged exporters to make greater efforts to tap new markets in areas like Africa.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr S B Mohapatra, secretary, ministry of textiles said that the SRTEPC needs to for a viable medium term strategy and the Focus Africa and Focus CIS programmes should be considered seriously to improve exports in the coming years. Expressing satisfaction with the activities of the council, he suggested the council undertake more aggressive marketing to increase exports to more than US$ 3 billion in the next couple of years. “The share of MMF textiles account for less than 10 per cent of total exports of Indian textiles. This share can be increased significantly, so the total textile sector would grow,” he said.

Mr Rakesh Mehra, chairman, SRTEPC stated that the council had achieved and exceeded the export target set by the government for 2002-03, despite recessionary conditions in the world market. More than 80 per cent of India’s synthetic and manmade textile exports are to non-quota countries.” He urged the minister for more MMF (Group 2) quotas for the US market as currently a large number of exporters were unable to tap the growing US market for synthetic and manmade textile due to non-availability of sufficient quotas.