Pact for Skills is part of the EU industrial strategy, addressing the competitiveness of 14 critical ecosystems, including textiles.

The main aim of the pact is maximising the impact of investments in improving existing skills and training in new skills. Pact for Skills is an initiative promoted by the European Commission and coordinated by Euratex and has more than 100 organisations as members. The signatories acknowledge the skills challenge in the textiles ecosystem, and have committed to invest in reskilling and upskilling workers, integrating green and digital skills and improving the attractiveness of the sector. Members of the pact will benefit from the networking, guidance and resources offered by the EC to implement the targets which are proposed in the Pact.

The industry, employers, social partners, national and regional authorities, education and training providers will work together and invest in large-scale skill partnerships, guarantee the exchange of best practices and increase the attractiveness of the sector.

As the voice of the European textile and clothing industry, Euratex works to achieve a favorable environment within the European Union for design, development, manufacture and marketing of textile and clothing products.The EU textile and clothing industry has around 1,60,000 companies employing 1.5 million workers.

PSI will be held in Germany, April 26 to 28, 2022.

This is a leading European trade show for the promotional product industry. It was scheduled for January 2022 butthe ongoing pandemic made a re-scheduling necessary. The new dates provide both exhibitors and visitors with more planning safety.In the meantime, exhibitors and visitors can continue to learn about the latest trends and innovations across the industry by connecting with PSI’s online platform.

With PSI scheduled next April, the organiser offers the industry the best conditions possible for a successful, safe and secure event.The postponement from January to April was decided in close consultation with exhibitors and partners as well as promotional product distributors and consultants.Attracting over 350 exhibitors and numerous visitors, PSI is known and popular well beyond the borders of Europe. PSI is organised by RX Austria and Germany. Although the current health and safety measures implemented at the trade show venue have proven to be highly effective RX aimed at putting attendees’ minds at rest by deciding on the postponement.

Pandemic developments across Europe are affecting planning for trade show organisers, exhibitors and visitors alike. The new wave of cases is causing major uncertainties among both exhibitors and visitors.

Knitwear garment exporters in Bangladesh want the permissible wastage rates to be raised from the current ceilings.

They say the wastage rates for knitwear-making from yarn are unrealistic and that if they are to meet the apparel export targets, business activities need to be simplified and that they will not be able to reach the goals if they have to face a fault-finding attitude. Exporters often run out of lead time to settle the HS code issues and get the orders cancelled eventually. They also say they miss the export lead time due to raw materials and accessories stuck up at ports and a lengthy supervision by revenue officials of cutting at factories.Garment entrepreneurs saythey are put into trouble since most of the applications by export-oriented industries seeking their raw materials to be enlisted with the harmonised system code are not accepted. Owing to a constantly changing market apparelmakers need to import new types of raw materials that are not in the harmonised list. According to them, imported raw materials need to be released without any bank guarantee or duty if the harmonised system code of the product is mentioned in the utilisation declaration by the BGMEA or the BKMEA.

Swiss textile machinery companies have machinery for fabric inspection and presentation, labelling and tracking, folding and packaging.

They have the technology to inspire a new vision at the post-production segment of textile manufacturing. Maag Brothers is a leading supplier of high-end machines for quality assurance in the final make-up processes, specifically fabric inspection, plating/folding, selvedge printing and packaging. Maag’s new system covers tasks from fabric inspection to dispatch, and offers transparent and easily adjustable processes with real-time process control. It’s a digital solution, resulting in a slim organization, is paperless, and the basis for further optimization towards industry 4.0.

Norsel is an expert in grey fabric labelling systems, for piece tracking through all textile processes. High-quality labelprinting and proper sealing on all kind of fabrics ensure readability and sustainability after dyehouse processes such as mercerizing, high temperature dyeing and even hot calendering. There is no roll mix-up during dyeing. Easy sorting of fabric rolls and rapid delivery make processes in the mill much more efficient.RFID codes lift fabric inventory control to the highest level, with all information readily transferred to a database and integrated through any ERP software.

For most textiles, finishing processes are not actually the last stage.Products often need an extra touch of expertise to make them perfectly ready for the customer.

An international conference on cellulose fibers will be held in Germany, February 2 to 3, 2022.

Cellulose fibers are a true material miracle as they offer a steadily expanding, broad range of applications. Meanwhile markets are driven by technological developments and policy frameworks, especially bans and restrictions on plastics, as well as an increasing number of sustainability requirements. The presentations will provide valuable information on the various use-opportunities for cellulosic fibers through a policy overview, a special session on sustainability, recycling and alternative feedstocks as well as the latest developments in pulp, cellulosic fibers and yarns. In addition, examples of non-wovens, packaging and composites will offer a look beyond the horizon of conventional application fields.

The conference will highlight crucial issues with regard to the overall goal of keeping the environmental impact of cellulose fibers low. A core theme of the session will be the responsible use of wood and forests. With this objective, speakers of the session will discuss the importance of circular concepts for cellulose feedstocks. Exciting insights into the important Hot Button Reportwill be offered by Canopy. The Hot Button Report enables the producers of cellulose fibers to better understand the impact their raw materials have on forests and the climate development worldwide.

Istanbul Fashion Connection will be held February 9 to 12, 2022.

About 300 companies and brands will present themselves. The entire range of the apparel industry will be presented under one roof: women’swear, men’swear, children’s wear, denim, leather and fur. Shows-in-show with the product areas lingerie and hosiery and with bridal and evening wear complete the offer.

Istanbul Fashion Connection offers an overview of the concentrated strength of Turkish design, production quality and service offerings in the fashion industry. In the fashion hotspot of Istanbul, designers, brands, design studios, agents, producers and representatives of all retail channels will meet to expand their portfolio and develop new business areas.Istanbul Fashion Connection will take place under 2G rules and adherence to strict hygiene measures. Topics such as digital transformation, smart clothing, technical textiles and sustainability will be the focus of seminars and workshops at Istanbul Fashion Connection. Trend zones and fashion shows will provide information on current trends. For visitors, the event will offer an attractive invitation program including accommodation and transfers.

Turkey as a production location and its highquality producers meet the demands of the European fashion industry and trade and are considered a strong argument for cooperation.

Trent will focus on expanding its operations in the beauty market.

Tata’s retail arm is keen to tap into this significant growth opportunity after having exited the beauty space 23 years ago.Extended product line and experimentation with formats for these products are in the offing. The Tata Group had been an early player in India’s beauty industry as Simone Tata helped to launch cosmetics brand Lakme in 1953 before the business sold it to Unilever in 1998. The Tata Group then stayed away from the beauty space for over a decade due in part to the non-compete clause in its sale of Lakme. Now, after small-scale operations in the sector since 2014, Tata is ready to focus on the beauty industry once again, along with footwear and innerwear. Trent is considering launching in-house cosmetics brands as part of this initiative. The business already has its own chain of retail stores, Westside, in which it could retail the new cosmetics brands.The company continues to remain focused and committed to the accelerated store expansion agenda and also on the digital channel, as the online channel registered 95 per cent growth in the second quarter over the previous quarter.

Sri Lanka’s apparel industry has a target of $8 billion in export earnings by 2025.

Strengthening backward vertical integration and further improving sustainability credentials are vital in achieving the sector’s vision, while enhanced access to key export markets – including within the Asian region – will provide a significant boost in realizing these aspirations.

At present Sri Lanka accounts for around one per cent of the global market share of apparel exports. Efforts to strengthen backward vertical integration of Sri Lanka’s apparel value chainare critical, particularly in the current context. This would pave the way for the industry to reduce lead times and significantly increase its domestic value addition – which currently stands at around 55 per cent. The latter would also enable Sri Lanka to make greater use of preferential tariff concessions such as the Generalised Scheme of Preferences (GSP) Plus tariff concessions to the European Union (EU), a critical market for Sri Lanka in general, and apparel in specific.

Efforts are being made to attract key players in the fabric segment to invest in fabric mills in Sri Lanka. The pandemic has strongly increased the preference for near-shoring among buyers, given how Covid caused vast disruptions to global supply chains. Sri Lanka can position as a hub to serve Asia.

Indonesia believes the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) will open up opportunities to increase exports of footwear.

The country’s shoe exports to RCEP countries reached 29 percent of total exports in 2020 followed by the United States at around 27 percent. RCEP participating countries are the second largest footwear export destination for Indonesia after the European Union.RCEP countries have become an important market, especially China, which showed a large increase in imports in the period 2019 and 2020.So for the Indonesian footwear industry, the ratification of the RCEP is quite urgent.In terms of market segment, Indonesian footwear products have a branded sports shoe market segment while China dominates the export of cheap footwear which also enters various countries.

But the footwear industry faces challenges in maintaining competitiveness for the domestic market.The free trade commitment contained in the RCEP will directly allow the entry of cheap products from abroad.Efforts to maintain competitiveness have not been followed by the readiness of the domestic upstream industry in supplying raw materials. Most of the raw materials are still imported from abroad, because the domestic textile industry has not fully met the needs. In the context of increasing exports, it is also necessary to maintain the domestic market and one way to do that is to maintain competitiveness.

In November 2021, Pakistan’s total export proceeds were up 32 per cent.

The upward trend in exports of value-added sectors was seen for the past few consecutive months.Rupee depreciation, greater demand from the international market helped bolster exports. Exports of home textileproducts were up by 34per cent in November 2021 over the previous year followed by a 33per cent increase in men’s garments. An increase of 68per cent in jerseys and cardigans exports was noted over the corresponding month last year.Exports of women’s garments posted an increase of 34per cent in November over the corresponding month of last year, followed by a 24per cent increase in export of leather apparel over the previous year. An increase of 127per cent was noted in the export of fruits and vegetables. Cement exports were up by 193per cent in November against the previous year.

The United States of America, China, United Arab Emirates and Netherlands remained the top destinations of Pakistan’s exports during the month of November from a year ago.Pakistan exports to the US grew 48per cent in November over the corresponding month of last year followed by a 30per cent increase to China and a 96per cent increase to the UAE.