Weaving alliances formed abroad

Lured by the huge opportunities opening up with the abolition of the quota regime in new year, domestic textile associations are working overtime to forge foreign alliances.

The Cotton Textiles Export Promotion Council (Texprocil) has forged a tie-up with its Chinese counterpart while the Federation of All India Textile Manufacturers Association (FAITMA) expects to sign an alliance with its German counterpart in the first week of January.

The Confederation of Indian Apparel Exporters has written letters to its counterparts in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal to form a platform where they can share expertise.

FAITMA president Arvind Poddar said the proposed alliance with the Confederation of the German Textile and Fashion industry aims at enabling FAITMA to "facilitate arranagements""" from marketing and technological tie-ups to equity participation""between German companies and its members.

"FAITMA has also had a brief discussion with the Development Authority of Switzerland for a possible tie-up," he said.

The association will sign a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Confederation of Germany in the first week of January.

Poddar added that the alliance with the German body will also help FAITMA members to promote their products there.

S Sarkar, deputy director of Texprocil, said the association has signed a MoU with the China National Textile & Apparel Council (CNTAC) a fortnight ago with the objective of jointly tackling the challenges arising out of the phasing out of quotas.

"The MoU seeks to promote a higher level of investments and joint ventures in the textile and apparel industries in both countries," Sarkar said.

CIAE president Amit Goyal said the association has written letters to its counterparts in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal asking them to form a joint forum so that they could reap the benefit of the abolition of quota.

"Although there is no material development on the front, we hope that a forum may be formed shortly," he said.