At the initiative of Dr. A. Sakthivel, Chairman-AEPC, an Inter-Ministerial Workshop was organized under the Chairmanship of Shri Ajit Seth, IAS, Cabinet Secretary, Govt. of India.
The meeting was attended by Secretary (Textiles), Finance Secretary & Secretary (Revenue), Secretary MSME, Commerce & Industry Secretary, DGFT, DG NIFT, JS Ministry of Textiles, JS Customs, JS Duty Drawback, JS Shipping, JS Financial Services senior officials of the Government of India.
Speaking on the occasion Dr. A Sakthivel stated that, "Textiles and clothing have been recognized as a thrust area for growth due to the sector's potential to boost productivity, employment and investment. As such, it is imperative to design a framework to re-position the sector with a long-term vision (2025) to enable it to achieve 10 per cent share of the world textile trade."
Therefore, it was a felt need to evaluate the constraints and gaps for addressing the problems of the RMG Sector. This meeting is first of its kind where all the stakeholders of the GOI related to Textiles are under one roof. This meeting will serve the twin objectives: of boosting trade and generating employment."
In the FTP, several employment intensive sectors are provided benefits viz. Handicraft, Handloom, Cottage and tiny sector. Therefore, there is strong case for including garment sector also. This sector is the major employer and with the investment of Rs. 1 crore, 750 jobs are created directly and another 750 jobs are created indirectly. Thus, around 1500 jobs are created with an investment of Rs. 1 Cr. Therefore, the garment industry needs special dispensation, he added.
Cabinet Secretary in the opening remarks congratulated Dr. A. Sakthivel to bring this forum under one roof. On the issues raised by AEPC related to labour, Shri Ajit Seth remarked, I have spoken to Labour Secretary who will look into the procedural simplification of issues related to labour - let us seen what can be done.
Dr. A Sakthivel made the following proposal for boosting clothing and garment exports from country:
"Proposal-1: Enlargement of the garment export basket by manufacturing garments (Knitted and woven) from fabrics which are not widely available in India – Issuance of duty credit scrip (offsetting custom duties) on import of specialty fabrics at the rate of 5% for the export performance in the year 2012-13 and in the entire 12th five year plan.
Proposal-2: To increase synthetic knitwear exports from India under the integrated skill development scheme (ISDS) by setting up of innovative research / resource centre.
Allocation of funds under the ISDS to AEPC for setting up resource centers at Tirupur and Kolkatta with a total project cost of Rs. 6405.00 Lacs with government share of Rs. 5577.00 Lacs.
