Textile SMEs to cast the Net wide

How to set up a textile export business on the Internet?

How to search for overseas agents and check their credibility for export through the Internet?

How to gain information on the import duty norms in over 185 countries?

All these questions and many more will be answered at a workshop-cum-counseling session for textile small and medium enterprises to be held on January 6 and 7 here.

The event is organised by the textiles committee of the Union textile ministry and the Federation of Surat Textile Traders Association.

The workshop, 'The art and science of Internet as a tool for export', to be held under the cluster development programme, will try to orient textile SMEs to various dimensions of Internet as a tool of export marketing.

Use of innovative techniques of e-mail in order to get a reply, positioning the web site with buyers, building respectability for the company and product through the Internet, targeting new and emerging markets through Internet and measuring the effectiveness of the company's web site by internal evaluation are some of the subjects that would be discussed at the event.

Textile and clothing manufacturers and traders, who would like to get into exports, are the primary target group for this workshop.

Proprietors and senior executives of export units and support service institutions will also benefit from this workshop, organisers said. Global Network, an international trade consulting firm, will be the resource organiser for this workshop.

The CEO of the company Jagat Shah, will conduct the workshop. The textiles committee is a statutory body under the ministry of textiles, which is implementing the cluster development programme in 23 SMEs clusters in the country and also conducting a nation-wide training programme for industry personnel.

The workshop is organised in co-ordination with local industries associations, state and central government agencies and other stake holders in the clusters.

"You may have read or heard marketing experts saying the Indian textile SMEs should invest in marketing infrastructure. One of the components of marketing infrastructure for exports is the use of Internet and web sites for exports. Are we using the Internet to its full potential or just using it for e-mailing? Through the effective use of Internet, you can service your existing buyer in a better way. You can get new buyers, you can lower your transaction cost and reduce processing time," Jagat Shah said.

The Indian exporters try to search buyers on the Net, which is a wrong method, Shah said.

"We have to make buyers search for us. How to do that? That is an art and a science," he said. In the US, out of the total population of 29 crore, about 16.5 crore are Internet users.

"If we have to target such countries as our markets, then we have to use Internet as an effective marketing tool," Shah said.