There is nothing more fulfilling than a well contested battle, and the AEPC elections this year lived up to that expectation… My heartiest congratulations to the winning team for retaining the confidence of a majority of exporters…, it is a well-deserved win!
I must compliment the winning team, especially for the constraint that they showed during the build-up of the elections, as there was no ‘bad mouthing’ or ‘inappropriate’ statements made against the opposing parties, and realizing that the industry comprises of an intelligent set of people, the focus was on holding open houses and updating the industry on current policies, issues and also matters related to the misuse of the Apparel House.
To their credit, the Chairman of AEPC sent an ‘open letter’ to the industry few days before the elections stating their stand and clarifying issues being raised… He admitted that there were certain misunderstandings/misgivings between the AEPC and the Ministry, but the same has been sorted out over the past two months and now the Ministry and the Council are working hard together to implement the package given by the Prime Minister to the industry.
The AEPC also submitted a detailed para by para reply to the queries raised in the CAG report in March and since then there has been no further queries from the CAG. Also they have complied with the directives of the Ministry to shift the IAM from the premise of the Apparel House and close down all commercial activities unrelated to export promotion happening in the AEPC building. The demand to hold the IIGF at the Apparel House has also been agreed upon and there seems to be a serious intent to remove all controversial flash-points.
I feel that the opposing group lost its way somewhere in-between and rather than focusing on the agenda of promoting exports for the small- and medium-level exporters, it became a ‘politics of change’.
The agenda for all should be nothing but increasing export opportunities from India and the Apparel House needs to be nurtured to the glory that it was visioned to be. Both teams need to work together and not make the AEPC a breeding ground for politics, but let it remain the hotbed of industry.
In one of the meetings that I attended, I had cautioned the opposite team to stay true to their agenda for the betterment of the industry and not make the defeat of the current team as the major goal… I can only say that the elections were closely contested and I hope that over the next year the opposing team will work towards creating a strong support base with positive agenda and gain experience in governance.
We all know that passion alone is not enough to make up for lack of experience…; now it is up to the team led by Rajiv Kapoor to regroup and prove to the industry that they are more than just a few ‘disgruntled’ exporters!
We at Apparel Online will continue to keep an eye on the way the industry and AEPC moves and our regular ‘report card’ will mirror the voice of the industry.
