The Hindu Business Line : AEPC sets up Institute of Apparel Management

The Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) set up Institute of Apparel Management at Gurgaon, to create managerial cadre professionals in the apparel, textiles and fashion retail sectors. Sponsored by the Ministry of Textiles, it will be followed by more centres in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Kolkata within the next two to three years.

According to the Chairman of AEPC, Mr Vijay Agarwal, there is a gap of 2,50,000 managers between the availability and requirement of personnel in the areas of management, merchandising and vendor management. “The textile industry has a potential to employ three to four million people,” he said.

The council has tied up with Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Australia, and Lasalle-SIEA, Singapore, for technical assistance and is in talks with the London School of Fashion among others for similar purposes, Mr Agarwal said.

May miss target

AEPC also operates 30 training centres for junior staff and will release around 25-30,000 trained persons by next year.

Textiles is the largest employer with a work force of six million and ready-made garments exports amount to three per cent of the global trade, said a release.

The industry recorded exports of $8.2 billion in 2006-07 and the target for 2012 is $10.5 billion, according to Mr Agarwal.

“But I don’t see that happening due to various problems faced by the industry, like high transaction costs, octroi charges and rigid labour policies. We are incompetent compared to China by 10 to 13 per cent largely because we are only concentrating on cotton and not other fibres,” he said, adding that some of these issues will be taken up with the Prime Minister in the first Textile Summit to be held in Delhi later this month.

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