Underlining that Bangladesh and India should complement each other rather than compete, President of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), Faruque Hassan stressed the need to build a strong regional value chain to ensure mutual growth.
Taking part in the inaugural session of the 13th edition of the two-day International Conference on Textiles & Apparel (Texcon 2021) with its theme ‘Indian Textiles: Unleashing the next wave of growth’, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Thursday (21 October) virtually, Faruque said, “Through this event, I want to underscore the need and importance of creating a regional value chain in the apparel sector rather than competing with each other,” while adding that India holds a unique position in the supply chain — starting from cotton production to finished fabrics — while also excelling in the areas of fashion, designing and technology even if Bangladesh, not being a producer of cotton, managed to become the second biggest apparel exporter globally, thanks to its manufacturing prowess.
We can build a value chain based on raw material supply, production and marketing while also use each other’s expertise, knowledge and technology, said the BGMEA President adding that by leveraging India’s strength of designing and technology and Bangladesh’s prowess and expertise in production, both the countries can come up with a brand and retail globally even as he underlined that many Indian expatriates were working in top positions in Bangladesh garment sector, adding value to its growth.
He also welcomed Indian businesses to invest in Bangladesh while adding Bangladesh can be a good market for India’s textile makers as Bangladesh looks forward to diversify product offerings by making value-added items, while adding the dynamics of the global sourcing is evolving based on cost, tariff, policies, etc.
Dilip Gaur, Chairman, CII National Committee on Textiles and Apparel, and Managing Director of Grasim Industries Ltd (Aditya Birla Group) too echoed the same sentiments as the BGMEA chair as how both the countries can evolve and excel to become the powerhouse of global textile value chain by using each other’s competencies even as Kulin Lalbhai, the Co-Chairman, CII National Committee on Textiles and Apparel and Executive Director of Arvind Ltd., said post Covid, the whole world is looking at an alternate to China as the entire value chain undergoes restructuring.
It may be mentioned here that the focus of the conference was to identify the winning value proposition in global textile exports, build a new sustainability narrative, strengthen India’s textile hubs and establish ‘brand India’ along with enhanced market access in the global marketplace.
