Piyush Goyal, the Union Minister for Textiles, Commerce and Industry presented the AEPC prestigious exports awards to the RMG exporters on 8th December 2023. The ‘AEPC Excellence Honours’ was conferred for the year 2021-22 and 2022-23.
The Minister addressed the gathering by saying, “40 by 30 will be a fitting tribute to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision to make India a developed nation by 2047. Let’s expand textile exports to 100 billion through our collective efforts. If RMG exports can grow from US $ 16 billion to US $ 40 billion in this period it will truly be a game changer for the future of the textiles industry and in our effort to provide jobs to a large section of people and create a value added proposition.” He said that the Government is taking every possible step to promote exports such as entering into free trade agreements and promoting brand India.
The Minister also advised the garment exporters to avoid “predatory pricing” and to source raw materials from Indian companies rather than relying on “opaque” overseas suppliers. He stated that strengthening domestic supply chain capacities through mutual assistance is essential for the long-term viability of the nation’s whole textile ecosystem.
Applauding the industry, Shri Goyal said, “The encouragement we received from the industry led to 55 per cent export growth from US $ 500 billion to US $ 776 billion in both merchandise and services exports in the last two years between 2021-23.”
Naren Goenka Chairman AEPC said, “the Indian apparel industry has been able to withstand the hard and testing times during the pandemic wherein despite the global demand being stagnant, Indian apparel exports grew at a rate of 30.35 per cent in 2021-22 over 2020-21, and 1.10 per cent in 2022-23 over 2021-22. While we commemorate this success today, we are also vigilant of the fact that India’s apparel exports have been constant to the tune of 3-4 per cent of global export share during the past 3-4 years.”
Replying to queries of the industry on scale and infrastructure Shri Rohit Kansal, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Textiles said, “The global market is trillion dollars and so even when we reach 100 billion of textile exports, we will be only 10 per cent of total textiles trade. From that perspective the target 40 billion seems to be eminently achievable. Our PM MITRA initiative seeks to address the issues flagged by the industry such as scale, investment and infrastructure.”
Gold trophy for the highest global exports 2021-22 & 2022-23 (above Rs. 500 crore in each year) went to Shahi Exports Pvt. Ltd., Faridabad, Silver trophy to Richa Global Exports Pvt. Ltd., Gurugram, Arvind Limited, Ahmedabad gets Bronze.
A Sakthivel, Chairman, President, FIEO gets the award for mentor of the Indian Apparel Industry and Shri Deepak Seth Founder and Group Chairman Pearl Global Industries Limited awarded as Icon of the Indian Apparel Industry.
