The Hindu Business Line : Vaghela seeks European investment in textiles

Bangalore, Sept. 2 Calling upon European investors to invest in the Indian textile industry, the Union Textile Minister, Mr Shankarsinh Vaghela, said the country offered several facilities in terms of labour, power and special economic zones with financial concessions and duty benefits.

Delivering the guest speech at the Kufner-IACDE (International Association of Clothing Designers & Engineers) Summit 2007 in the city, Mr Vaghela said he hoped to receive support, technology and investment from Europe.

Delegates from the German chapter of IACDE have been in the city visiting select men’s tailored clothing factories in Bangalore (including Silver Crest Clothing and Gokaldas Weil) to study their manufacturing abilities, apart from information exchange regarding latest trends in the industry – in terms of designing, fashion and technology.

Favourable factors

Highlighting other favourable factors for investment, Mr Vaghela said the National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT) was at the “forefront of developing fashion design and technology” in the country. He said there were proposals from Dubai and Mauritius to set up NIFT institutes, and added that the Mauritius proposal was in the last stage of discussion with both the Government of Mauritius and a private party jointly showing interest.

On whether special economic zones (SEZs) were feasible given the opposition, the Textile Minister said the problems were related to “acquisition of land.” He said State governments and other parties concerned must not take land from farmers but instead acquire barren land at good price for developing SEZs.

Textile park scheme

Mr Vaghela also said the Government’s integrated textile park scheme will offer subsidies to the tune of Rs 40 crore (out of the project cost of Rs 100 crore). About 30 projects have been cleared in States such as Maharashtra, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. About 50 more were needed, said Mr Vaghela.

On whether the Government would give more sops to exporters in the wake of a strengthening rupee, Mr Vaghela said, “the PMO will help us in due course. We are looking at the Finance Ministry for more financial assistance.”

Mr Jagadish Hinduja, Managing Director, Gokaldas Images; Mr Joachim Hensch, Head Designer, Hugo Boss AG and President, IACDE Germany; and Mr C. Sukesh Kumar, MD – South East Asia, Kufner International; were the other speakers at the summit.

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