Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) Chairman Dr A Sakthivel, addressing the members at 41st Annual General Meeting of the Council, said the apparel exports from the country will expand by about 40% this fiscal.
“We are working with a target to achieve a 40% increase in apparel exports this financial year with major focus on new medical textiles.
This will take our total apparel exports up from $15.4 billion last fiscal to about $22 billion in 2020-21,” Dr Sakthivel said.
Congratulating Hon’ble Minister of Commerce and Industry Shri Piyush Goyal for announcing India’s readiness to sign the initial limited trade package with America, Dr Sakthivel said the trading atmosphere in the US is looking good and there are positive sentiments for engaging with India as a reliable partner in the global value chain.
The Chairman said that the Council has already requested the government for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the US and this initial limited trade package could be a precursor for the much desired bilateral FTA.
Besides, the AEPC has requested the government to thoroughly review all the existing trade pacts with the EU, UK, US, Australia and Canada to remove the disadvantages.
FTA with USA, UK and EU along with CEPA with Australia and Canada can help double apparel exports in three years, he said.
While recognizing medical textiles as a new source of business for the Apparel Industry and forex earner for India, now that the government has lifted the export ban on many of the PPE items, the Chairman exhorted the members to get into Man Made Fibre (MMF) based garments in a big way going by the global demand pattern.
“The need of the hour is to quickly engage in product diversification into MMF. We plan to sign MoUs with a number of MMF manufacturers, including Reliance Industries Ltd, to improve the sector.
MMF is the key to increasing India’s textile exports to the global market,” Dr Sakthivel said, stressing on the need to improve design and processing.
This would need extensive R&D into the various fibre base, technologies, processing and sample development.
For facilitating R&D into these activities, the Council is setting up a dedicated R&D Centre at its head office in Apparel House, Gurugram.
