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China is the largest foreign investor in Myanmar and has substantial investments in the country’s garment sector. FDI has the potential to positively contribute to economic transformation and poverty-reduction in Myanmar. As of mid-2015, about 55 per cent of registered garment firms in the country were fully or partly foreign-owned. Among them, a quarter came from China, 17 per cent from Hong Kong, 29 per cent from South Korea and 12 per cent from Japan.
However, Chinese and Hong Kong-linked garment firms have produced few benefits, linkages or spillovers in Myanmar beyond exports and job creation. The reason is Myanmar’s industry lacks entrepreneurial, management and technical skills. Foreign-owned firms have few local managers. In the long term, Myanmar should follow the Bangladesh example, where tertiary education institutes dedicated to the garment industry increase supply of managers and high-skill technicians.
In addition the country should ease entry restrictions for foreign firms, undertake active investment promotion in garments through complementary reforms in finance and trade policy, expand training to tackle the shortage of high-level skilled manpower, and engage with buying firms, especially global retail or apparel corporations.
Other possible reforms are: making access to trade credit possible for garment exports and providing tariff-free fabric imports to both free-on-board and cut-make-package producers.
Denim brand Levi’s is using 3D printing technology to develop denim jackets. The step has come at a time when the company is planning to delve into a futuristic mode to innovate the manufacturing process and its design approach. Levi’s is taking digital renderings of its denim jacket and using 3D printing technology to create a shell of what the real jacket looks like. The denim brand is using the Stratasys’ Fortus 450 mc 3D production system for effective implementation of the process.
The process is dedicated to extracting the essence of the product and then shaping it as a digital entity. This further can be distributed and remotely turned into templates which incorporate intensive patterns and then can just be all captured in the piece of very advanced digital collateral.
This means Levi’s doesn’t have to rely on sort of centralised manufacturing sites any more. Additionally, the process will enable Levi’s to capture all the twill lines, stitch lines and the buttonholes of the jacket with the help of a topography scan. These features will then be re-rendered as a 3D print, reducing seven different panels to just one panel by superimposing the fabric over the template.
German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi), in cooperation with the Association of the German Trade Fair Industry (AUMA) for the first time is supporting a German group participation at Irantex, the international exhibition of textile machinery, raw materials, home textiles, embroidery machines and textile products scheduled for beginning of September in Tehran. Irantex, will be a four-day event held from September 4 to 7 at Tehran International Permanent Fairground, Shahid Chamran Expressway.
The German Pavilion, initiated by the VDMA Textile Machinery, will cover 300 sq. mt. exhibition space. Nearly 26 VDMA member companies will participate in the official German presentation at Irantex. According to VDMA, in the first five months of 2017, Germany’s exports of textile machinery and accessories reached more than €27 million which was already more than in the entire year 2016. The VDMA exhibitors at Irantex will cover the whole textile chain. The companies presenting their latest developments include ANDRITZ Kusters, Autefa Solutions Germany, Bruckner Textile Technologies, Oerlikon Manmade Fibers Segment Oerlikon Textile, Strobel Spezialmaschinen etc.
Similarly some companies from South Korea, Spain, Italy, Turkey, India, Netherland, Russia, China, Taiwan, Germany and Japan will be participating in IRANTEX.
India has set up institutional mechanisms to enable the textile industry achieve its full potential of production, exports and employment. One is a Knowledge Network Management System (KNMS) which will facilitate exchange of knowledge between academia, the farming community and the industry on productivity of natural fibers and diversification of their by-products. The KNMS will cover jute, silk, wool and cotton.
Another is a synergy group on manmade fibers which will formulate policy interventions to enhance the growth and competitiveness of manmade fiber industry in India. India has a great chance to capture the market for manmade fibers that’s been vacated by China.
Yet another is a task force on Textiles India which has been set up to steer follow-up action on various outcomes of Textiles India 2017 for growth of the textiles sector. Textiles India 2017, held in Gujarat from June 30 to July 2, 2017, was not only the largest ever international trade event in the textile sector in the country, but also hosted a series of roundtables and international conferences with the participation of eminent persons from the business fraternity, academia and policy makers to deliberate on various opportunities for the growth of the sector.
GST will have little effect on prices of textile products. However, the cut in GST rates on job work done in natural fibers including cotton and woolens has provided a major relief to textile companies. The move is expected to boost domestic business and increase international competitiveness. It will reduce the tax burden and avoid inverted duty for textile manufacturers.
The relief is expected to benefit the unorganised sector, where as much as 80 per cent of the work such as stitching, weaving and knitting happens. The five per cent tax rate is applicable for job works in apparel as well as shawls and carpets. Textile groups want to know whether operations like packaging, shifting of raw materials, loading and unloading also fall in the five per cent slab. Much of such operations are contractual but still have indirect tax implications for a company.
GST has been reduced to five per cent from the initially decided 18 per cent. The lower GST slab is expected to benefit the entire value chain of the textile sector. Though the five per cent tax rate is applicable for job work in apparel as well as shawls and carpets, it’s felt the tax relaxation will benefit the unorganised sector more. Textile companies want clarification over the term job work, which could include manufacturing activities such as weaving, cutting and knitting.
Exports of Egypt's cotton in the 2016-17 season have risen 19 per cent. Last year Egypt banned all but the highest quality cotton seed in order to save its historic crop, dramatically reducing the area under cultivation to about 1,30,000 acres, a more than 100-year low.
Egypt is now looking to scale that cultivation back up. The area planted rose to about 2,20,000 acres this year and is expected to hit up to 5,00,000 acres in the next two to three years. So the area under cultivation is growing and exports growing so that Egyptian cotton can now be sold at a price that's less than California pima.
Egypt, last November, floated its currency, roughly halving it in value and making its exports relatively cheap on international markets, a boon for Egyptian cotton traders able to source higher quality cotton after the new regulations. They see Egypt able to more than double its global market share within three years to capture about 20 per cent of a small but high-end market that trades some 5,00,000 tons of long-staple cotton per year. Egyptian long staple cotton is famously used for luxury linens. It trades at a high premium compared to the more common short-staple cotton.
Bangladesh has a target of earning $50 billion from readymade garment exports by 2021. The readymade garment sector is a vital sector of Bangladesh economy which is immensely contributing to the country’s export earnings, employment generation and value addition. Contributing approximately 80 per cent of the country’s total export earnings, Bangladesh is the second largest apparel exporter in the world, next to China.
And in the case of empowerment of women, this industry is one of the driving forces. Currently, more than 44 million workers are working in garment factories in the country and 80 per cent of them are women. Efforts are being made to ensure a safe, sound, green, environment-friendly and a vibrant garment sector. In fact, out of 10 eco-friendly factories in the world, seven are located in Bangladesh.
Steps are being taken on capacity building and improving the competitiveness of the readymade garment industry. Significant improvements have been made on various issues, including the development of garment industry, strengthening safety of workers, fixing minimum wages, inspection of industrial factories and strengthening of monitoring. Labor laws have been amended and attention has been paid to occupational health and safety, green growth and sophisticated, clean technology.
Bangladesh is unable to take advantage of shifting work orders from China. China’s market share in the global apparel trade has been declining over the last few years because of a dearth of skilled workers and the manufacturing shift towards high-end and technological products. Its market share last year was 36.7 per cent, down eight per cent year-on-year.
Some of these shifted orders were received by some other countries like Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia. Bangladesh is the second largest apparel supplier worldwide after China. One reason it could not take advantage of the shift in work orders is a shortage of capacity. While the number of garment factories was supposed to increase due to abundant work orders from western world, China, Japan and some other emerging markets, it did not pan out that way.
After the Rana Plaza building collapse in April 2013, the garment sector has not witnessed any major domestic investment except for the expansion of existing units by big garment companies. Also, more than 1,000 small factories faced closure due to strict inspection and remediation by Accord and Alliance. As a result, a capacity shortage has been created.
Bangladesh is therefore receiving a small quantity of work orders that are being diverted from China but the country is hopeful volume of such work orders will rise in the near future.
The Apparel Training and Design Centre (ATDC) encourages women to take up career in the apparel industry and makes efforts to nurture their talent, skills and dedication. There is visible recognition of women’s contribution in the apparel/fashion/retail sectors. There is recognition that when women join the workforce, the country progresses rapidly and their contribution to productivity increases the GDP of the country and the economic well-being of families. For women in general apparel manufacturing, design etc. are seen to be ideal jobs.
The institute has received an award from the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India for contributing to the development of women’s skills in the country.
ATDC is India’s largest quality vocational training provider for the apparel industry with over 200 centers pan India which offer the entire range of apparel-related vocational courses. These include 65 ATDC vocational institutes and over 135 ATDC-SMART centers and skill camps offering state-of the- art vocational programs. ATDC is probably the single largest training provider for any vocation in India and the single largest beneficiary or nodal agency for implementation of a government’s skill development scheme.
The courses are focused on the downstream apparel export and domestic manufacturing industries. Apparel Training and Design Centre has a mission to upgrade the technical skills of the human resources employed in the garment industry.
American Apparel, the iconic North American fashion brand that rose to stardom for its ‘Made in Los Angeles’ clothing and infamously fell into bankruptcy in 2015, is back in business. The brand has replenished its most in-demand apparel basics on an updated e-commerce website that looks almost identical to the old one. The fashion retailer is reconsidering its initial product pitch.
American Apparel is now shifting focus towards ethical production and dedicates sections on its website that talk about ‘green’ energy, healthcare prospects for workers and a more diverse marketing agenda in general. With credit to new ‘Globally Made’ approach, American Apparel’s product assortments, which have been dialed down to a curated set of AA Bestsellers at the moment, are being offered at much cheaper prices.
The brand is still trying to give America a chance by selling a series of identical product twins where one is made in the US and the other is ‘imported’. These will be displayed side by side on a brand-new page on their website. Although the American products are far more expensive and offer fewer options in terms of colours, the industry is keenly watching American Apparel’s endeavour as it has become a testing ground for the world to see if people actually want to buy local or not.
