Textile sector seeks more investment in man-made fiber units

Textile industry today called for more investment and increase in the market share from meagre 2.2 per cent in man-made fiber (MMF) based textile sector to help government's ambitious plans to grow the size of the segment from USD 110 billion to USD 400 billion in the next few years.
"The investment in man-made fiber based textile value chain will help in successfully implementing 'Make In India' initiative for textile sector. This will help in reducing the dependability on MMF based fabric imports worth USD 1.2 billion and make India a self-sufficient country in MMF-based textiles," Wazir Advisors Jt Managing Director, Prashant Agarwal said.

He was speaking at the FICCI organised 7th annual conference on textile and apparel industry 'TAG 2015' here.
The country imports MMF-based fabrics worth USD one billion from China, Korea and Taiwan due to absence of good quality fabric suppliers in India.
Agarwal said out of total global trade of MMF-based apparel, which is currently pegged at USD 170 billion and India has a very low share of 2.2 per cent. This presents a great opportunity to increase the share of Indian MMF and textile and apparel industry should work together to increase it further.
Kavita Gupta, Textile Commissioner, Ministry of Textiles stressed on the need of R&D in the textile and apparel industry, which needs to be addressed collectively and in time-bound manner.

"The government is also focusing on skill development and the industry should come forward to work hand in hand with government on this area," Gupta said.
She also informed that the government will open textile commissioner's office in each state, which will help industry to interact with the ministry on regular basis.