Taking forward his plans to give a push to the textile industry through increased foreign direct investment, the Union Textile Minister, Dayanidhi Maran, is all set to launch a roadshow in Europe.
The programme would be in the form of a tour by a high level delegation of the industry headed by him. It would be in two phases. In the first phase, the team would go to Switzerland, Italy and Turkey for a week from October 26 to November 3 and in the second phase to France and Germany for four days from November 23 to 26.
The focus of the delegation would be to showcase the potentials for setting up green field units across the entire textile chain, from textile machinery, and fabric manufacturing to garmenting, manmade fibres and yarn and technical textile either as individual ventures or through tie-ups with domestic industry.
Addressing a press conference, Mr. Maran exuded confidence that the mission would be successful as it was preceded by a detailed study by consultancy firm Technopak, which had identified potential investors and there was immense interest among them to invest in India.
The study was commissioned by the Ministry and representatives of Technopak have also had preliminary discussions with potential investors.
“Because of the high cost of manufacturing in Europe, the industry there is looking at investing in countries with low labour and other costs. India is the best suited for them as it has a growing domestic market and also a strong patent regime, apart from the advantage of low cost of production.”
He pointed out that India was increasingly becoming an attractive destination for foreign investments, as it was the only “bright spot” along with China in an otherwise bleak global economy scenario and had an ever increasing domestic market because of growing per capita, household and discretionary income.
He said he would use the same `mantra’, which he used to attract FDI in the telecom sector when he was Union Minister for IT and Telecom in the previous Government – “come to India, manufacture in India, sell in India and make money in India.”
Pointing out that it was the first time that the Government and the industry have synergised their efforts to attract investment in the textile sector, Mr. Maran noted that such an effort should yield better results than if it had been a unilateral effort by the industry or the Government.
The delegation would include NTC Chairman and heads of AEPC, TEXPROCIL, HEPC AND STTEPC, apart from captains of the industry from different parts of the country.
