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Focus on cooperation, not just competition

M. Soundariya Preetha

CITI, SIMA team visits Thailand

COIMBATORE: The Indian textile industry, which has a 3.5-4 per cent share in the global textile and clothing trade, is looking at enhancing mutual cooperation with its counterparts in South and Southeast Asian countries.

A recent visit to Thailand by a 28-member delegation only strengthened this view. The visit was organised by the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) and the Southern India Mills’ Association (SIMA). A similar SIMA-delegation went to China last year. “The CITI is looking for similar visits to other Asian countries too as there are more areas for cooperation,” says D. K. Nair, Secretary General of the confederation.

The textile sectors in the countries in this region — Thailand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, China, Indonesia, Bangladesh and India — each have a niche area. There is scope for mutual cooperation to combine their strengths and increase further the share of the Asian countries in the global textile and clothing market, he says.

For instance, in garments, China’s strength is in mass production. India has a niche garment segment. Pakistan, India, and China are the major cotton yarn and fabric producers in this region. In the man-made fibre area, Thailand, Indonesia and Korea are strong. Sri Lanka looks at sourcing fabric from India and some of the other countries in this region for its garment industry. Bangladesh is one of the largest destinations for Indian yarn. And, India imports a lot of fabric from China, Korea, and Indonesia, he says.

Mr. Nair pointed out that the visit to Thailand was an exploratory one, to study its textile industry and infrastructure and identify where India can improve.

“Thailand’s industries are good in branding and marketing,” says S. V. Arumugam, Chairman, SIMA. Similarly, they have world-class roads, connection to ports and power supply. This helps them achieve relatively lower cost of production.

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