The Hindu Business Line : Textile exporters keen to explore ties with Europe

This comes in the backdrop of the Textiles Minister, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, leading a delegation to Europe to seek FDI into the textiles sector, which is currently negligible.

Although these are still early days and there is very little clarity among most exporters in India on what this could entail, a few are looking to sew up plans with European companies.

Advantages

According to Mr D.K. Nair, Secretary-General, Confederation of Indian Textile Industry, a lot of positive things can emerge out of ties with Europe. “Efforts are on to explore ties with European companies and invite them to invest in India. This can provide Indian companies access to modern technology – especially in the areas of weaving, processing and garmenting.”

Mr Jagadish Hinduja, Chairman, Gokaldas Images, is looking at various “options” for FDI influx from Europe precisely for this reason. Europe is known for “advanced technology in fabric production” and the benefits of that could percolate into India, he said.

“There have been moves from Indian companies; European companies are also looking to shift base to India or relocate their plants here. But it’s still early days,” said Mr Hinduja.

Mr V. Thiagaraj, Executive Director, Sona Valliappa Textiles, is looking to enter into working partnerships or joint ventures with European mills to gain a better toehold into their market.

“All over Europe, very few mills are actually running and are on the verge of closing down. We want to take over these mills and thus gain access into their market. They could also serve as our marketing front end, apart from allowing access to their machinery which we can import into India at 50 per cent of the cost. We are talking to players in France, Spain and Portugal,” said Mr Thiagaraj, who is looking at companies with expertise in finishing, value-addition for specialty textiles, garments and uniforms.

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