To facilitate the partnership between Indian and foreign buyers with manufacturers and traders, a four-day premier textile fair ‘Weaves’, with the theme “Global Connect for Weaving” was inaugurated at Texvalley here on Wednesday.
Organised jointly by the Confederation of India Industry (CII) and Texvalley, an integrated textile market, over 250 exhibitors representing the textile industry ranging from fabrics to weaving machines are taking part in the fair. Apart from this, buyer-seller meet is expected to attract about 1,000 business people to generate revenue of over ₹800 crore.
Speaking at the inauguration, A. Sakthivel, Vice-Chairman, Apparel Export Promotion Council and Regional Chairman, Federation of Indian Export Organisations, said that the State accounts for 60% of yarn and fabric exports while it accounts for 85% of knitwear exports.
He said that after 35 years, export from Tirupur has shown minus 15% and the industry is doing everything to come back. The textile industry in the State provides 40 lakh jobs of which 60% of the work force are women. “Reports were submitted to the Ministry of Textiles. If they don’t do it, knitwear exports may go out of India,” he cautioned. He wanted the Central and State governments to absorb the project cost that were implemented by the private parties.
C. Devarajan, Past Chairman, CII Erode Zone and Vice Chairman, Erode Textile Mall Private Limited said that that the situation in fabric manufacturing is not so encouraging as weaving units are large in numbers, but small in size as they were not able to promote and succeed. Hence, the fair will bring holistic improvement to the textile industry as a whole and to the fabric segment.
He said that the value of fabric sector is ₹35,000 crore per annum which can very well touch ₹1 lakh crore by 2025 with careful value-addition and technology upgradation. He called upon the traders and others to accommodate the change in the industry by aligning with growth partners, learning and attaining right knowledge and improving their visibility.
Sanjay Jayavarthanavelu, Deputy Chairman, CII Southern Region and Chairman and Managing Director, Lakshmi Machine Works Limited said that fashion keeps changing every two weeks and called upon the textile industry to respond quickly to the changes.
B. Krishnaraj Vanavarayar, Chairman of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and past Chairman, CII, said that successful entrepreneurs never gave excuses as they relied on their strength and succeeded. He said that the textile industry contributes to the country’s economy immensely and wanted political will to take decisions, which are essential.
M. Duraisamy, Immediate Past Chairman, Powerloom Development and Export Promotion Council, Nahid Rashid, Counsellor (Commercial), Bangladesh High Commission, V. Krishnamoorthy, Deputy High Commissioner, Sri Lanka, and D.P. Kumar, Executive Director, Erode Textile Mall Private Limited also spoke. P. Periyasamy, Chairman, Texvalley, buyers and sellers were present. A coffee table book titled “Titans of Textiles” featuring 28 successful entrepreneurs in the textile sector was also released on the occasion.
Source: The Hindu, India Thursday, 06 December 2018