The Hindu : Front Page : Institution partnership for capacity building

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jun 19, 2006

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Front Page

Institution partnership for capacity building

M. Gunasekaran

IIFT to help Tirupur exporters improve competitiveness

TIRUPUR: How many sewing machines are working in Tirupur? Nobody knows. How many circular knitting machines does the town have? No one knows. It is the same case with embroidery machines, compacting ones and dyeing machinery etc.

Though Tirupur has attained an enviable position as the knitwear capital of the country with an annual export of Rs. 8,000 crore, there is no authentic database on its capacity.

Neither the Government authorities nor the trade bodies were able to provide even the exact value of exports or domestic sale. These lacunae will soon be addressed with the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) joining hands with the industry through a partnership programme for capacity building and improve competitiveness to enhance further growth.

IIFT will soon sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Tirupur Exporters' Association (TEA) and the Textiles Committee (TC).

K. Rangarajan, professor and head, Centre for SME Studies, said the need of the hour was to create a cluster level authentic database of the value chain and the partnership initiative would go into that direction.

While TEA collects data from its members and other firms, TC would coordinate and IIFT would interpret the data. Around Rs. 35 lakh would be spent for initial build-up of the data and funds would not be a constraint, Mr. Rangarajan said.

TEA president A. Sakthivel said creation of a database would help them in showcasing Tirupur in a better way to the foreign buyers.

"We can show our production capacity and easily grab orders," he said.

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