With demand for textiles exports turning sluggish in Europe and the U.S., India is looking for new markets through free trade agreements (FTAs) with countries such as Australia and the United Arab Emirates, Union Textiles Secretary Rachna Shah said here on Tuesday. Addressing a press conference, she said the Centre is taking steps to address the issues of lack of demand and uncontrolled imports in the textiles sector. The Hindu had recently published a series of reports on the problems in the sector due to lack of demand and unregulated imports.
Ms. Shah said there was a dampening of demand for exports in the U.S. and European markets last year and also this year. “The export market is witnessing a slowdown. On import, we are monitoring major surges which will be addressed,” she said and added that quality control orders on textile materials will assure quality in the products imported and will control the substandard products that are imported.
She added that the Centre is exploring new markets other than strengthening existing major markets for textiles. She said FTAs with Australia and UAE are being worked out and exports to Japan and Korea are being boosted. FTAs with the United Kingdom and some West Asian countries are also being negotiated, she said adding that the Centre’s target is to achieve $100 billion exports by the end of 2030. Factors that affect exports, according to her, are competitiveness, logistical costs and value chains that are spread out across the country. Schemes such as PM Mitra and Production Linked Incentives (PLI) will scale up production and address such issues. “Our strength has always been in cotton and the launch of Kasturi cotton will help us in targeting the premium quality segment of cotton,” she hoped. She added that more than 3,500 exhibitors and 3,000 overseas buyers are expected to participate in Bharat Tex 2024, a global textile expo to be held here in February.
On PLI, she said that in textiles there are 64 participants and no one has withdrawn their application to avail the scheme. 30 firms, she said, have made considerable progress and expect to begin production from this year. PM Mitra, she said, of the seven States finalised in March last year, there has been considerable progress on signing MoUs. “The master developer selection will happen now. We will gauge interest from potential market developers from the market. Under the scheme, there will be government support of ₹500 crore for setting up the park and an early bird scheme of ₹300 crore will be provided additionally under the project. We are really hopeful that the projected investment of ₹70,000 crore will be achieved,” she said.
“It is estimated that over a period of five years, the PLI scheme for textiles will lead to fresh investment of more than ₹19,000 crore, cumulative turnover of over ₹3 lakh crore will be achieved and will create additional employment opportunities of more than 7.5 lakh jobs in this sector and several more for supporting activities,” she said.
