Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) in a trade notice said a Google form has been created to collate, analyse and process the suggestions/ inputs. The commerce ministry on Friday sought suggestions from stakeholders, including industry and trade associations, for the formulation of the next foreign trade policy (FTP 2021-26). The FTP provides guidelines for enhancing exports to push economic growth and create jobs. Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) in a trade notice said a Google form has been created to collate, analyse and process the suggestions/ inputs. "In order to prepare a new five year Foreign Trade Policy, suggestions/inputs are invited from various stakeholders. To collate, analyse and for ease of processing the suggestions/inputs received, a Google Form has been created...," it added. Stakeholders, including export promotion councils (EPCs), trade/industry bodies/associations, commodity boards, regional authorities and members of the trade, industry are requested to send their suggestions/inputs only through the abovementioned Google Form, rather than email or paper-based submissions on or before July The foreign trade policy (2015-20) was extended first for a year till March 31, 2021, due to the pandemic and again extended for six months till September this year. At present, various benefits are provided under different schemes such as merchandise export from India scheme (MEIS).
Source: Economic Times
Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India has witnessed continued macroeconomic stability and resilience in economic recovery in the recent months. India is committed to long term relationship with investors from the US and the two partners have set a target of achieving $500 billion trade, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday while addressing prominent foreign investors such as General Electric, Baxter Healthcare USA, Brambles, Marsh & McLennan Companies, and PepsiCo. According to a note by the external affairs ministry, the two sides targeted to increase bilateral trade in goods and services to $500 billion during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US in September 2014. Addressing the India Chamber of Commerce USA’s Summit on Global Financial & Investment Leadership in October last year, commerce minister Piyush Goyal recalled that the bilateral trade between US and India grew from $126 billion dollars in 2017 to $145 dollars in 2019. “The target we have set of $500 billion dollars in the next 5 years is eminently doable,” he said last year. India-US bilateral trade in goods and services was $104 billion in 2014. Sitharaman, who was virtually participating in a roundtable organised by the US India Business Council (USBIC), acknowledged the efforts of CEOs of top 40 American companies for creating a global task force to mobilise resources for India during the second Covid wave, a finance ministry statement said. The roundtable, ‘Maximizing India’s Sustainable and Inclusive Growth as Global Destination for U.S. Investment’, provided investors with an opportunity to engage with the finance minister and other senior officials of the Indian government. Formed in 1975, USBIC is a business advocacy organisation to enlighten and encourage the private sectors of both India and the Us to enhance investment flows. “The areas of discussion included life sciences, green energy, infrastructure, insurance, defence, security, manufacturing, renewable energy, power, pharmaceuticals, textiles and hospitality and digital economy,” it said. The finance minister also spoke about the ₹6.28 lakh crore economic stimulus and relief package announced recently, which was tailored to meet the basic requirement of investors. She also informed the investors about India’s consistent and continuous wideranging reforms that make the country an attractive destination for foreign investment and how India continues to rise as a global economic powerhouse, the statement said. She spoke about the budget initiative pertaining to the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) at GIFT City and reiterated the government’s commitment towards developing it into a globally competitive hub for innovation and financial activities to serve the Indian economy and the region as a whole, it said. Sitharaman said there is a sharp decline in new Covid infection with ramping up of the vaccination programme and India has witnessed continued macro-economic stability and resilience in economic recovery in the recent months. India has a “strong track record” towards reform implementation in the last six years, the statement said quoting her. In her concluding remarks, Sitharaman assured her audience of India’s “consistent and continuous productive reforms” that make the country an investor-friendly destination. Economic affairs secretary Ajay Seth highlighted India’s progress in areas of policy and taxation. He spoke about this year’s responsive and responsible budget focusing towards resolving investment and tax assessment issues, asset monetisation and privatisation of most of the sectors, the statement said.
Source: Hindustan Times
Minister of Commerce & Industry, Consumer Affairs & Food & Public Distribution, and Textiles Shri Piyush Goyal today addressed the Valedictory Session of the 2nd edition of Aatmanirbhar Bharat- Self-Reliance for Renewable Energy manufacturing”. The Minister said that we are fully confident that India will play a leadership role in the area of renewable energy in the years to come. Dwelling upon the progress made in the country in the area, he said that from the hydro-power in the initial stages, we are already looking at the future & have started engaging in Hydrogen technologies. A Hydrogen Energy Mission in 2021-22 for generating hydrogen from green power sources has been launched. He said that LED Mission was another success story led by Prime Minister Shri NarendraModi.LED Lights have saved the country billions of dollars in electricity bills. As a nation, it brought down our carbon emissions by over a 120 million tonnes every year: “We were able to bring scale and rapidly roll it out all over the country”, he added. Shri Goyal said that we will encourage automobile users of electric cars to recharge their batteries using renewable energy or solar energy during day hours, for which we are looking at a big rollout of charging stations across gas stations in the country. He said that battery technologies are going to be very important for our sustainability mission & for renewable energy to progress more, and we are investing heavily on batteries now. The Minister said that by 2023-24, India is going to be 20% blending ethanol in our petrol products. He said that our ultimate target is to also have vehicles which can take up to 100% ethanol. “Our idea is to make India conscious of its electricity needs being met in a more sustainable fashion & balancing the cost of electricity in such a manner that our developmental goals do not get affected. From an overall renewable energy target of 175 GW by 2022, India is now looking at 450 GW by 2030”. Talking about the progress made by the country in renewable energy, Shri Goyal said that several decades ago, India was amongst the initial countries to promote hydro generation of power- 1st small hydro power plant startedfunctioning in Darjeeling way back in 1897. He said that visionaries like Baba Saheb Ambedkar laid thefoundation of an All-India policy with regards to thedevelopment of water & electric power. Next, India moved on to harness power from wind in abig way. Wind equipment was imported initially but as the volumes went up, we became one of thebiggest manufacturers of the wind equipment.Shri Goyal said that solar was the 3rd tryst with renewable energy. Initially, the prices were very high & most people werenot willing to engage with it. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, then CM of Gujarat, was one of the fewleaders who recognised its potential & the fact thatthe world needs to move away from carbon.He said that India decided consciously to go for high volumes, which gradually led to making of equipmentin India. “As Import component kept reducing, and this broughtdown prices significantly. Because of the huge scale, we were able to get the world's best companies in India, invest in India, get competitive pricing & we allowed imports.” Shri Goyal said that historically, Indian has always respected nature. For us, environmental care is important because it is intrinsic to every Indian. He said that our culture, our traditional practices, our way of living reflects this consciousness. Waste is unacceptable to Indian households,and recycling & reuse comes naturally to an Indian family. The Minister said that our country is also endowed with the blessings of nature in terms of rivers, sunshine, wind, monsoon etc.
Source: PIB
Tax experts interpret this in two ways. While one view is that the tendering process should be exempt, the second one holds that tender processing fees do not specifically find mention in the exemption notification, hence should be taxable. The government’s tendering process is all set to come under the goods and services tax (GST) umbrella after a tax ruling has said it constitutes supply of services. In a recent ruling Maharashtra Authority for Advance Ruling (AAR) said any tendering should attract GST on the processing fee and that 18% GST should apply wherever such forms are bought online or offline. Tax experts interpret this in two ways. While one view is that the tendering process should be exempt, the second one holds that tender processing fees do not specifically find mention in the exemption notification, hence should be taxable. "This ruling is in line with an earlier ruling issued by Maharashtra AAR in the case regarding Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation on online/ offline tendering and has rightly concluded the activities as supply of services,” said Harpreet Singh, partner, KPMG. From now on any tendering process, which means buying of tenders or forms to apply for any government contract, will come under GST. Both online and offline tendering would be considered as “supply of service,” the ruling said. The only difference between online and offline tendering is that in the case of the former, tender forms are sold online and in the case of the latter, the tender forms are sold as printed matter In both the cases, forms are sold, collected from the applicant, processed and finally after the entire process of documentation and verification of the applicant's position to perform the contract, tenders are allotted to a particular person to the exclusion of others, the ruling added. "With this and other rulings on supplies made against fees, charges etc. it becomes critical to appreciate that GST valuation rules specifically provides for duties, fees and charges levied under other laws, to be included under GST,” said Singh.
Source: Economic Times
It took decades for India to put its old, inward-looking and uncompetitive manufacturers out of business. Now the government is giving cash to new, inward-looking and uncompetitive companies to produce for the domestic market. One of Narendra Modi’s first promises when elected India’s prime minister in 2014 was to revive the country’s manufacturing sector. India had been deindustrializing since the early part of the century and policy makers correctly argued that only mass manufacturing could create enough jobs for a workforce growing by a million young people a month. In his first major speech as prime minister, Modi invited the world to help: “I want to appeal all the people world over [sic], ‘Come, make in India,’ ‘Come, manufacture in India.’ Sell in any country of the world but manufacture here.” The “Make in India” slogan quickly developed into a full-fledged government program, complete with a snazzy symbol — a striding lion made out of meshed gears. Government officials spoke at length about increasing foreign direct investment and improving the business climate to attract multinational companies. Careful targeting of the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business indicators raised the country 79 positions in the five years after Modi took office. Hire with confidence from a list of top-rated professionals Ad Houzz VISIT SITE Sponsored by And, after all that, in 2019 the share of manufacturing in India’s GDP stood at a 20-year low. Most foreign investment has poured into service sectors such as retail, software and telecommunications. “Make in India” has failed, replaced by a government that never admits defeat with a call for “self-reliance.” Now, exactly 30 years after India turned away from central planning and liberated the private sector, the government is again handing out subsidies and licenses while putting up tariff walls. Modi shut down the 1950s-era Planning Commission when he took office. Yet the bureaucrats in New Delhi are back to picking winners and directing state funding to favored sectors. They’re doing so through new “production-linked incentive” schemes, in which companies apply for and receive extra funding from the state for five years in return for expanding manufacturing in India. Such incentives were originally meant to support domestic mobile-phone production. Following energetic lobbying, the government began extending them blindly to all sorts of sectors, from batteries to food processing to textiles to specialty steel. Money is apparently no object: A government that has held off on income support during the pandemic has budgeted Rs. 2 trillion (roughly $27 billion) for these industrial subsidies. The only thing worse than socialism with central planning is industrial policy with no planning at all. There’s no logical coherence to the sectors chosen, all of which seem to have been included for different reasons. Is the scheme supposed to supercharge job growth? Then why not focus on laborintensive sectors such as apparel? Is India aiming for economic independence from China? Then subsidies should be limited to sectors where China dominates supply chains, as part of a broader, China-focused trade policy that partners with the United States, Australia and others. Is the goal to invest in cutting-edge sectors? Then the government should explain why bureaucrats would do a better job than the flood of private equity that’s pouring into India. Instead, all the problems of India’s socialist-era past are returning, cunningly disguised. Excessive closeness between bureaucrats and the beneficiaries of industrial policy? India’s top civil servant recently called for an “institutional mechanism” that provides “hand-holding” for companies. Endlessly shifting targets? Companies that just began receiving subsidies are already asking the government to relax production quotas. It took decades for India to put its old, inwardlooking and uncompetitive manufacturers out of business. Now the government is giving cash to new, inward-looking and uncompetitive companies to produce for the domestic market. Meanwhile, it’s hard-wiring into the economy the kind of connections between industrial capital and policy makers that are nearly impossible to disentangle. The government’s defenders point out that its investor-friendly reforms weren’t answered; nobody came to “Make in India.” And, they ask, hasn’t China profited handsomely from subsidizing its own manufacturing sector? Such arguments miss the point. Modi’s manufacturing push never went much further than gaming the World Bank’s indicators. No investor believes structural reforms, particularly to the legal system, have gone deep enough. India has a large workforce but too few skilled workers. To top it all off, the rupee is overvalued. Rather than work at solving these interconnected and complex problems, politicians in New Delhi have decided to paper over them with taxpayer money. Perhaps picking winners has worked for China. What Indians know for certain is that it did not work here after decades of trying. Sure, public investment in sectors of vital strategic importance — electricity storage, perhaps, or cutting-edge pharma — is defensible. But when you start throwing money at every sector that you wish had developed on its own, then all you’re announcing to the world is that you’re out of ideas. India’s haphazard foray into industrial policy is going to fail, just as “Make in India” did. And it’s likely to cost the country billions along the way.
Source: Economic Times
Subramanian expects the impact of the second wave not to be very significant The country’s economy will start witnessing a growth of 6.5 to 7 per cent from fiscal 2023 onwards, helped by various reforms undertaken by the government so far and also as Covid-19 vaccination drive progresses, Chief Economic Advisor Krishnamurthy Subramanian said. He said the second wave of Covid-19 is unlikely to have a very significant on the economy. The country’s economy contracted by 7.3 per cent in fiscal 2020-21. “Together with the reforms and focus on vaccination, I expect growth to start hitting close 6.5 to 7 per cent from FY23 onwards and accelerate from there on,” Subramanian said at a virtual event organised by Dun & Bradstreet. “Given the significant reforms that have been done over the last one and a half years, I have no hesitation in saying that I look forward to a decade of high growth for India.” He said the momentum in recovery that was seen in the fourth quarter of FY21 and overall in the second half of FY21 got impacted to some extent by the second wave of Covid-19. While the second wave was quite devastating on the health side, the economic impact of that has been limited because the second way was much shorter in duration compared to the first wave and the economic restrictions that were placed were primarily at the state level, he said. “We expect the impact of the second wave to be not very large.” Subramanian said the supply-side reforms undertaken by the government in sectors such as agriculture, labour, export PLI scheme, change in MSME definition, creation of the bad bank, privatisation of public sector banks among others, are going to push growth in the future. He said vaccination is important for the country to recover from the pandemic. Addressing the event earlier, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EACPM) Chairman Bibek Debroy said GDP growth rate is a function of what the base was in the last year. He expects a real rate of growth of around 10 per cent during FY22. Debroy said the pandemic has resulted in whittling away of two years of economic development. “So it is not only the target of $5 trillion dollar (economy by 2024-25) moves far away, but also the fact that adhering to the 2030 SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) target for India will be a little more difficult.... One of the worrying signs is there aren't any robust signs of employment picking up in the urban areas.”
Source: Business Standard
The country's textile domain has been experiencing a colossal growth potential, and with a more technologically innovative supply chain being put into place, the sector's advancement could be further propelled. The Indian textile industry is one of the oldest in the country's economy, dating back several centuries. Today, the textile industry accounts for 14% of the overall industrial production, contributes to approximately 30% of the total exports, adds 4% to India's GDP and is the second-largest employment generator after agriculture. The sector is highly branched out, catering to various divisions ranging from conventional handloom products to cotton, wool, silk products, natural and man-made fibre, yarn, and apparel. Usage of textiles is widespread across key end-use industries like healthcare, defence, automobile, and construction. Its massive potential for employment generation opportunities in the industrial and organised sectors in rural and urban areas has transformed the industry into a significant contributor to accelerating the economy. Sector's upward growth trajectory The country's textile domain has been experiencing a colossal growth potential, and with a more technologically innovative supply chain being put into place, the sector's advancement could be further propelled. Between 2000 and last year, the industry has received FDI inflows in surplus of $3 billion, considerably driving up the sector's growth. The Indian textile industry is majorly reliant on cotton as its prime constituent. The production of raw cotton in the country plays an essential role in enabling the textile industry to flourish. The sector that was impacted by the pandemic has managed to turn the crisis into an opportunity. The post-COVID-19 era has offered a growth prospect for the digital textile industry owing to its virtual operations. By acting as a game-changer, the role of technology in strengthening the industry's potential has resulted in increased sales that will continue to persist even in the forthcoming years. India is home to some of the leading textile companies such as SVP Global Ventures, Welspun India, Grasim Industries, Vardhman Textiles, to name a few. Considering the industry's growth potential and employment generation, the government introduced the Integrated Skill Development (ISDS) Scheme to address the skilled labour required to run the diverse textiles sector and its segments. As per a recent study, the textiles sector accounts for about 7% of the overall industrial output, thus lending momentum to exports simultaneously. It further estimates that textiles will account for $82 billion in exports by as early as 2021. The growing industry figures indicate that our country is set to touch the USD 185 billion figure by 2024-2025. One of the significant contributors to the textile industry's growth is SVP Global Ventures. The company has observed sustained growth in last two quarters, bouncing back from the lockdown impact. Their product mix of high margin compact cotton yarn, rise in yarn prices, infusion of AI-based technology in manufacturing, and strategic location of Sohar plant at Oman and Jhalawar plant at Rajasthan has provided tremendous operational efficiencies. The company worked efficiently during the pandemic. SVP plans to expand the Oman plant further by doubling the spindle capacity to three lakh and adding another 3,500 rotors. The company has the vision to be a fully integrated textile company. Towards this end it has set up a plant in Sohar, Oman to manufacture garments to cater to Middle East market. The National Textile Policy (NTP) 2000 targets to generate occupation by way of increased global investments. This policy's key focus areas comprise technical upgrades, productivity enhancement, diversification of products and financing arrangements. Technological advancement Further to the sector's potential growth, the technology element plays a crucial role in reviving the Indian textile industry. Technology has reshaped the textiles industry to meet the rising demands and trends by providing data-driven customer operations. The sector is amidst a wave of innovation with automation and artificial intelligence in textile machinery. These developments have allowed organisations to work remotely and control their machinery and data collection and analytics to march towards further improvement. SVP Global Ventures has installed state-of-the-art manufacturing technology to expand business operations and production capacity as one of the industry leaders. The company has installed 150,000 spindles and 2,400 rotors cotton yarn automated manufacturing facility in Jhalawar, Rajasthan. The company's relentless drive to adopt new technology has given it competitive advantage globally. Furthermore, digitally-backed transformation in manufacturing technologies will further boost existing capacities with a labour-intensive to capital-intensive production approach. The modern machinery with Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology enables the company to manufacture yarn of the highest quality in higher operating margins with traditional spinning mills. These tech-infused efforts, upskilling labour, logistics efficiency will further result in higher productivity. Overall, with the remarkable advances and backed by solid domestic consumption and healthy export demand, the future for the Indian textiles industry seems to be bright. Also, the gradual economic growth/new normal amid the pandemic has given rise to higher disposable incomes, further leading to the surge in demand for products, thereby creating a bigger domestic market.
Source: Live Mint
The Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) held a webinar on ‘Sourcing of Polyester Fabric’ in association with Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Thursday. Speaking at the webinar attended by about 50 key players in the segment of manmade fibre (MMF) based garments, AEPC Chairman Dr A Sakthivel said, “From day one, we felt that we have enough MMF fibre and yarn but we do not have the proper fabric. I thank Reliance for coming forward to fill the gap.” Ritesh Sharma, Head, Brand & Retail at RIL, said, “Our company runs the Hub Excellence Program (HEP) to support the value chain. There are more than 55 high-quality, value chain players across spinning, weaving, knitting and processing. More partners are being added.” The company has a presence across all textile hubs and end-applications, he said, “Through this program, the entire value chain, including brands, will be able to take advantage of manufacturing and technical support, quality and supply assurance, access to innovative products, manufacturing support, and one-stop solution for all requirements,” Sharma added. The webinar was organized to promote import substitution of polyester fabric and to explore new sources. Reliance Industries partners shared their fabric supply chain to India and updated on new fabric sourcing at the webinar. Roshan Baid of Paragon Apparels said, “MMF fibre textiles all over the world are increasing as a substitute for cotton amid changes in global fashion trends. World trade in MMF fibre garments is estimated at 500 billion dollars.” MMF dominates global textile fibre consumption with 72:28 ratio i.e. MMF 72 per cent and 28 per cent is natural fibre. The share of MMF garment in India’s total apparel export is 1.6 billion dollars, which is only 10 per cent of India’s apparel export, Baid added. Harvinder Singh of Saachi Processors informed that their company uses Fukuhara, Mayer & CIE, and Jiunn Long machines for fabricating knit fabrics. “These are all brand new machines. The fabric produced from these machines have no cloud or line formation. Even oil stains on the greige fabric are controlled,” he said. Raj Kumar Agarwal of SVG Fashions said, “SVG is a rare textile company which has inhouse every possible form of fabric formation.” Sudhir Sekhri, Chairman, Export Promotion Sub Committee, AEPC, said, “I appeal to people at Reliance to look at the production of high-end fabrics very holistically and not just concentrate on fibre production.”
Source: Knn India
The South Indian Garments Manufacturers Association (Sigma) will be launching a new online home delivery system to overcome the crisis in the textile sector. The South Indian Garments Manufacturers Association (Sigma) will be launching a new online home delivery system to overcome the crisis in the textile sector. The association has come up with a mobile application that will help the sector to tide over the serious financial problems caused by the pandemic. According to the association, ‘Sigma E Marketplace’ is envisaged to provide the services directly to the customers. “The aim is to become an alternative space for online shopping giants like Amazon, Flipkart and Ajio with the help of an international-level online interface and mobile application. The application will work in favour of the customers. Delivery will also be expedited,” said the association. “The textile sector in Kerala has been going through tough times for the past three years. The problems faced by the clothing merchants did not start with COVID. Nipah and the two floods almost destroyed the sector. These disasters were followed closely by Covid. The pandemic has caused a loss of about Rs 1,000 crore in the textile sector. Many of the textile showroom owners have not been able to open their shops for months and are finding it difficult to pay rent,” said Abbas, general secretary, Sigma.
Source: New Indian Express
Grasim Industries has incorporated a joint venture company viz. 'Birla Advanced Knits' on 14 July 2021 for undertaking knits manufacturing business in partnership with Century Textiles and Industries (CTIL). Grasim Industries and CTIL will hold 50% each of the joint venture company, Birla Advanced Knits. The JV company will undertake the business of manufacturing man made cellulose fibre knit fabrics. Grasim and CTIL both have the right to nominate three directors each on the board of JV company. Grasim Industries is a leading global producer of Viscose Staple Fibre, the largest ChlorAlkali, Linen and Insulators player in India. Through its subsidiaries, UltraTech Cement and Aditya Birla Capital, it is also India's largest cement producer and a leading diversified financial services player. Shares of Grasim Industries fell 0.08% to Rs 1,556.75 on BSE. The scrip hovered in the range of Rs 1,553 to Rs 1,565.95 during the day. Century Textiles and Industries is a commercial powerhouse with interests in diverse industries. Currently, the business house is a trendsetter in cotton textile and also has a remarkable presence in the pulp & paper and real estate sectors. Meanwhile, CTIL climbed 2.09% to Rs 727.80 on BSE. The scrip hovered in the range of Rs 717 to Rs 732.95 during the day.
Source: Business Standard
Uzbekistan and Pakistan recently agreed to finalise a preferential trade agreement (PTA) within three months to boost bilateral trade volume. At the 6th meeting of the UzbekPakistani Inter-governmental Commission on Trade-Economic and Scientific-Technical Cooperation (IGC) in Tashkent, both sides agreed to form joint working groups on several sectors to boost cooperation. The meeting was co-chaired by Uzbek deputy prime minister and minister of investments and foreign trade Sardor Umurzakov and Pakistan’s commerce adviser to the prime minister Abdul Razak Dawood. Both sides agreed that the trans-Afghan corridor connecting the countries would play an important role in enhancing bilateral trade between the two countries, according to Pakistani media reports. The parties agreed to deepen partnership in the field of industrial cooperation, including by organising joint ventures in the field of textile industry, assembly of agricultural machinery, processing and packaging of fruit and vegetable products. It was settled to deepen cooperation in energy and mineral sector, agriculture, transportation and communication, labor, education, tourism, science and technology, technology parks, housing and communal services, intercity collaborations, standards, meteorology, culture and youth affairs. In April this year, Prime Minister Imran Khan and Uzbek President Mirziyoyev held a virtual summit to discuss the joint promotion of the project for the construction of the Trans-Afghan railway, increasing the trade turnover, enhancing cooperation between leading enterprises and companies of the two countries, resuming air traffic, developing inter-regional contacts, cultural and humanitarian exchanges.
Source: Fibre2 Fashion
Spanish textile firm Nextil Group will open a new fabric production plant in Guatemala, a country with a long tradition in textiles. The plant, with an area of 25,000 square metres, is expected to come on stream in Q1 2023. It will be located 30 minutes away from the city of Guatemala, with easy access to Atlantic and Pacific and the Pan-American road. The plant’s geographical location will give Nextil Group access to the mass production market in competition with Asian suppliers, enabling it to obtain a return on items that are currently deficit, securing maximum efficiency in logistics and distribution, with preferential tariff arrangements, the company said in a media release. With an overall investment of €40 million, the new production plant will have 350 local employees on its payroll and this number will grow as the pace of production steps up. The plant will also train Guatemala university students who wish to go into the textile sector. The Spanish group will keep welfare and social responsibility benefits on a par with production plants in the EU or US, including a health clinic, company store with credits, monthly grocery bag and a fund for loans to employees. The industrial plant will optimise its cost structure in line with other plants in the group and will maintain the certifications of origin for its products, thanks to the agreements arranged by this Central American country. Guatemala has EUR1 certification, by virtue of which it can preserve the origin of goods from both Europe and the US, in turn obtaining preferential treatment on entry to those markets. Nextil Group will maintain its existing production plants in Spain and the US for valueadded specialties, for the development of new products and for local and commercial logistics. "We want to get into a market that is currently inaccessible for us due to the cost structure, while keeping our existing plants for value-added products and the development of new collections in Spain,” said Manuel Martos, the general manager of Nextil. The industrial group will build a state-of-the-art factory. In keeping with its policy of environmental commitment, the textile group's new plant will implement a plan to maintain a low carbon footprint and incorporate cutting-edge machinery and advanced systems in energy saving, rainwater treatment and reuse of resources, among others, the release said. The basic principle of the Greendyes dyeing method will also be applied at this new plant. This dyeing process patented by the group features low water consumption, no toxic products and execution at ambient temperature, thereby considerably reducing energy consumption.
Source: Fibre2 Fashion
As losses mount, those in the fashion, textile and apparel sector are making an appeal to the government to allow them to operate under Phase Two of the National Recovery Plan (NRP). Federation of Malaysian Fashion, Textile and Apparel (FMFTA) president Datuk Seri Tan Thian Poh said they were concerned with the current situation as they might only be allowed to operate when the country reaches Phase Three of the NRP. “Total losses faced by manufacturers and retailers in the fashion, textile and apparel industry amount to RM163mil per day. “As such, there is a great urgency for the industry to be allowed to operate under Phase Two to avoid the collapse of the industry beyond salvation,” he said during a virtual press conference yesterday. The government’s threshold pointers for Phase Two of the NRP are average daily Covid19 cases dropping below 4,000, intensive care unit usage no longer at a critical level and 10% of the country’s population having received two doses of the vaccine. Since the first movement control order in 2020, Tan said about 15% of fashion, textile and apparel businesses had ceased operations while 30% were on the verge of closing down due to a lack of cash flow and future uncertainties. “Due to the numerous MCOs, the fashion, textile and apparel manufacturers’ export values have reduced from RM27bil in 2019 to RM21bil in 2020. “We reckon the situation will deteriorate further and will be beyond salvaging as some of our members are facing litigation and risk losing their overseas customers. “These overseas customers will move their future orders to other countries if we are not allowed to operate soon,” he said. He also noted that four renowned foreign-owned multinational textile and apparel factories had ceased operations in the country and retrenched about 6,000 employees in 2020. “Since then, the chain effect continues, with many local SME manufacturing companies in the industry having to shut down or downsize, resulting in about 15,000 job losses. “The situation will worsen if we are not allowed to operate under Phase Two of the NRP,” said Tan. The supply chain of the fashion, textile and apparel industry employs about 500,000 people nationwide. “A prolonged shutdown will put all the 500,000 employees at stake, and this will definitely aggravate the unemployment rate. “We foresee that more than 30% of the retailers will collapse before Phase Three of the NRP and about 150,000 employees will be retrenched,” he said. On a related matter, FMFTA applauded the government’s effort to expedite the national vaccination programme, while also urging it to review the threshold set by the National Security Council and immediately move to Phase Two of the NRP. “I think the country is on the right track because about 30% of Malaysian adults have received their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine while more than 17% have been fully vaccinated. “The country should move to Phase Two despite the high number of cases as other developed countries have accepted that Covid-19 is something we have to live with,” said Tan. The group also urged the government to allow businesses to resume full operations if all employees have been fully vaccinated.
Source: The Star
