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According to BMI Research, a Fitch group company, India is among the top five consumer markets in Asia offering retailers the strongest consumer spending growth of an average of 6.1 per cent over the next five years. The other four countries are China, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Indonesia.
As per the report, the real consumer spending growth in 2017 will be 6.2 per cent. The factors responsible for increase in consumer spending in India include increase in access to consumer credit, lower inflation and favourable regulatory environment for foreign owned retailers. These factors will continue to boost India’s consumer sectors in the coming years. India’s thriving e-commerce segment is expected to grow at double-digit rates in the forecast period up to 2021.
The report has observed that due to the limitations of activities for overseas retailers, e-commerce has been dominating. Bricks-and-mortar retailers have also began to foray into the e-commerce segment supported by the high mobile penetration in the country.
On the other hand, the report also stated that Amazon announced USD 500 mn investment to roll-out and fuel online retailing in India and due to the high mobile penetration in the country Bricks-and-mortar retailers are entering the e/m-commerce segment.
Ahmad Jawad, Chairman of Regional Standing Committee, Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), has sought concerted efforts to diversify exports of the country. An urgent and comprehensive measures were needed to contain decline in the exports as it would, otherwise, lead to negative balance of payments says Ahmed.
The FPCCI office-bearer stated that the country's current exports must be transformed into value added goods. Ahmad Jawad suggested prudence in prompt identification of export opportunities with equal attention towards sensitization of investors and the public. This was crucial to enhance their participation in the value creation process also there existed several other opportunities to strengthen supply chain of finished products pertaining to the country's untapped sector of horticulture.
There was a sizable presence of skilled human force. "Philippines, a country with half the population ours has roughly $25 billion of exports in the global out-sourcing industry (part of service sector)," says Ahmad. Similarly, he also stated, attention was needed to be paid towards tourism center and referred to Dubai that earned $36.4 of foreign exchange through tourism in 2015. "The country has got some breath-taking scenery, palatable food, and a wonderful cultural history for the global tourists, Ahmad Jawad added.
He agreed that Gwadar once developed in a proper way with foolproof security of the beaches could emerge among the best beaches in the world. Reiterating that the government needed to adopt a liberal view for export promotion, he commented that a holistic approach was needed to be adopted. Ahmad Jawad also suggested there should be a need to support entrepreneurship and to create new avenues for growth through proper guidance of the youth. Entrepreneurship creates a virtuous cycle of prosperity as the people not only get employed, create value for the society and the economy but also promote employment opportunities, he stated. The FPCCI stated that the spectacular growth of the US economy had only been possible through the culture of entrepreneurship which entailed taking risks for new ventures and not fearing from failure.
"At the Open venue, there are no gender-specific garments, just clothing. This Pitti Uomo space offers unisex fashion where brands propose pieces to both sexes. Genderless is redefining the rules and Open offers a sophisticated approach with an array of experimental collections and accessories. It’s about youth, style, fashion, mood boards, inspiration, men, women, responsibility. Brands here rarely create clothes for just one gender. Instead, their inspiration pushes them to make clothes that can be worn by anyone. Here are certain defining trends at Pitti:"
At Pitti Uomo’s ‘Open’ venue, there are no gender-specific garments, just clothing. This Pitti Uomo space offers unisex fashion where brands propose pieces to both sexes. Genderless is redefining the rules and Open offers a sophisticated approach with an array of experimental collections and accessories. It’s about youth, style, fashion, mood boards, inspiration, men, women, responsibility. Brands here rarely create clothes for just one gender. Instead, their inspiration pushes them to make clothes that can be worn by anyone. Certain defining trends at Pitti are below:
An bloom: it is a collection of Haori jackets and unisex kimonos, entirely artisan made. Agender and seasonless, all the garments are made in a workshops of Bavaria and use exclusive materials such as pure linen, silk and velvet. All the processes, from printing to dyeing are done by hand and each piece calls for hours of work
Emyun: The acronym of Elegance Makes You Unique and Natural, this young Swiss brand follows through a concept of contemporary elegance that looks to the Running Couture. Everyday athletes’ uniforms are made up of garments created to generate well-being, comfortable, with a wealth of properties in heat-regulating fabrics with top-level finish details.
EOE glasses: This is the first ecological, organic eyewear brand to come out of Scandinavia. A collection, that originates in the extraordinary nature of Nordic countries and their unique series of seasons, which dedicates the names of its models to tiny villages or to elements from local tradition. It’s a biodegradable, recyclable eyewear designed in Lapland and hand made in Italy or Japan.
Marvielab: Founded by Mariavittoria Sargentini in 2006, Marvielab sees design as a reflection of aware dressing. The new ‘re_mind’ collection is a synthesis of its projects so far. Garments selected from the archive share the concepts of agender and seasonless. Volumes are generous and soft, constructions are all about free bodies, in movement, comfortable. Cuts and details are reduced to the minimum, focussing on the silhouette.
Opaline: The brand owes its beauty to the combination of unique prints on simple models with comfy fit, a mix also applied to a simple garment like pyjamas. Fabrics are natural, interpreted with a fair-trade policy: 100 per cent Indian cotton and modal, royan dobby, tulle and Broderie Anglaise lace are embellished with embroidered details and fringes. Inspiration comes from collages of patterns taken from ancient Indian books.
Period features: Period Features: This derives from the creativity of Japanese designer and fashion director Masakatsu Tsumura, inspired by a trip to India. Masakatsu was first fascinated by the art of making fabrics by hand in West Bengal. Colourful, precious, with unique textures that are delicate to the touch, they have become the very soul of his creations. Tsumura is launching the Period Features collection with the focus on men's shirts, created using sustainable local production.
Wanna Maria Fiori: It’s a collection of unisex bags and footwear that refute schemes and trends to bring alive a recognisable, timeless style. The brand follows ethics that safeguard a production chain that is healthy from start to finish, with production entirely made in Italy, based in Civitanova Marche. Understated shapes and natural leathers write the history of a young brand that targets the men, women and children of today.
Maison Jejia: It’s a timeless and ageless, a chic and cosmopolitan lifestyle, an understated, measured luxury, made with love for details and experimentation. These are the style codes of the Jejia world. Invisible details, tiny touches of elegance. Maison Jejia is a way of being, conveyed in garments that become loyal companions for every day wear.
Rumisu: A project that arose from the creativity of two sisters, Pinar and Deniz, set in a world of beauty and imbued with love for the earth. Each scarf is a unique piece, illustrated by hand and then printed on silk and cotton; the border is hand-rolled and decorated with the technique typical of the traditional Turkish art of Oya, in collaboration with a UNDP project aimed at fostering the economic and sustainable development of women in the Southeast of Turkey.
Bananatime: It’s the everyday luxury collection from Amsterdam, a line of unisex garments to be worn wherever – at home, on the beach, when travelling or every day. The key concept is versatility teamed with comfort, for a range in pure silk (easy care and machine washable) enlivened with eccentric prints.
The manmade fiber textile industry is disappointed with the GST rates.
It feels lack of uniformity in GST rates for the textile sector will adversely affect growth sentiments and exports and badly hit employment generation.
The manmade fiber textile sector has been pleading for a uniform tax rate of five per cent across the value chain to rejuvenate the entire textile sector. It says the high GST rates of 18 per cent for manmade fiber and yarn, dyeing and printing units and 12 per cent on embroidery items can lead to an increase in input costs and will affect the entire textile value chain adversely.
The industry wants a revision of the higher GST rates announced for manmade fiber products—either an uniform rate with other verticals or lowered to 12 per cent from the current 18 per cent.
India already is reeling under a huge competitive disadvantage in the international textile market when it comes to manmade fiber based textile products. Competitors like China, Vietnam and Bangladesh are ahead in global exports of manmade fiber textiles.
Another area of concern for the industry is the non-allowance of refund of accumulated credit for the textile sector. It says this will affect the entire processing, embroidery and job works segments since the job works segment is the weakest link in the entire value chain of the textile sector.
China, Vietnam and Bangladesh continue to be the largest apparel exporters to the United States. During January to April 2017 apparels exported from these three countries constituted around 59 per cent of total apparel imports by the US.
China was in the first place with a 37.18 per cent share of total US apparel imports. Vietnam was in second place with a 14.10 per cent share. Bangladesh remained in the third position with a 7.7 per cent of total US apparel imports.
However, China and Bangladesh fell in value terms significantly on a year-on-year basis. China recorded a downfall of 3.45 per cent in values whereas Bangladesh noted a 6.30 per cent drop. On the other hand Vietnam continued its robust performance in value-wise apparel exports to the US as it was up by a massive 8.16 per cent on a year-on-year basis.
There is a change in the attitude of US consumers, who now prefer spending more on electronic gadgets compared to clothes. The US election has also impacted retail sales negatively. Global apparel exports to the US declined 6.44 per cent year-on-year in 2016.
All nine out of ten top apparel exporting nations of the world experienced negative growth in shipment to the US in 2016. Only Vietnam's apparel exports increased 0.30 per cent year-on-year in 2016.
The EU has decided to screen imports from Bangladesh. Shipments, by air or sea, will be screened by bomb-detecting dogs and devices at some intermediate points like Dubai or Istanbul or Doha or Colombo or Singapore.
Some air shipments from Bangladesh are already being routed through Dubai, Istanbul or Doha for screening, and some sea shipments are going through Colombo or Singapore.
The move makes Bangladesh the thirteenth country designated as high risk for EU commerce. It is likely to make it costlier for businesses in Bangladesh to sell products to EU nations.
Last year, Britain, Germany and Australia banned direct cargo shipments from Bangladesh. The country has suffered a string of deadly attacks in recent years claimed by extremists targeting perceived enemies of Islam, including bloggers, rights activists, atheists, religious minorities and foreigners.
Business leaders are worried about the possible delays in screening, when they are already scrambling to fulfil large orders on short notice despite frequent power outages that shut operations down.
Screening in a third country adds to the cost. Fresh screening will take at least ten days, at a time when factories are struggling to ship goods on time for many reasons.
Bangladesh’s garment exports to the EU are 60 per cent of the industry’s exports.
Although Bangladesh’s overall export earnings rose 3.67 per cent in the first eleven months of fiscal year 2016-17, the growth in export earnings slowed to 1.39 per cent. Of the total export earnings in the July to May period of 2016-17, the readymade garment sector grew by 2.16 per cent.
The slow rate of growth in export earnings is due to weaker demand in global markets for the readymade garment sector – the lifeline of Bangladesh’s economy in terms of export earnings. It is thought this will adversely impact backward linkage industry, production and even the Gross Domestic Product.
Bangladesh’s production capacity in the readymade garment sector has also gone down due to the ongoing remediation, which may be another reason.
Of the total export earnings in the July to May period of the current fiscal year, knitwear posted 4.91 per cent growth but woven garments witnessed negative growth and were 0.33 per cent down compared to the previous period. Earnings from jute and jute goods posted a 9.84 per cent rise while the home textile sector posted 6.72 per cent growth. Leather and leather goods earned 9.17 per cent more than they did the previous year.
500 outstanding business leaders growing their companies in the harshest of startup environments to challenge the stereotype of a typical company boss and inspire women globally this includes from a Peruvian trout farm manager to the head of an Indonesian meatball company.
Launched today at foundation500.com, the list is a reference to the famous Fortune 500 list by Fortune Magazine. The list, an initiative of humanitarian agency CARE and the non-profit H&M Foundation, mirrors the Fortune 500 list of U.S. Karl-Johan Persson, CEO of Swedish retailer H&M that founded the H&M Foundation, says If the world is to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals on Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality, the time to act is now.
He added that the entrepreneur is the hero of the time, and it is estimated that over the coming years over 1 billion women will enter the workforce – a majority through entrepreneurship. But women rarely make the covers of business magazines. With the Foundation 500 list he wishes to re-define what a business leader looks like.
The H&M Foundation, privately funded by the Persson family that founded retailer H&M, a women's empowerment program started with CARE in 2014 in Latin America, Asia and Africa. It pledges 120 million Swedish krona ($14 million/€12 million) to support over 200,000 women entrepreneurs from emerging markets.
The women on the Foundation 500 list are part of this program, which in its first phase has reached over 100,000 women in Burundi, Guatemala, Indonesia, Jordan, Nepal, Peru, Philippines, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Yemen and Zambia. In Burundi, the average rate of increase in income among women in the program was 202.8 per cent, the lowest being 104 per cent and the highest 401 per cent. Due to the success, a renewed three-year commitment is made.
Turnover, orders and foreign trade are on the upswing for the German textile and clothing industries. Textile turnover for the first quarter of 2017 was up 0.8 per cent. Clothing turnover was up 0.4 per cent. Both sectors combined showed an increased turnover of 0.6 per cent.
For the entire 2017 the combined turnover is expected to rise by 1.7 per cent –two per cent for textiles and 1.5 per cent for clothing.
In the two sectors there are 0.3 per cent more people employed than in 2016. Effective working hours increased in March 2017 by 2.1 per cent (textiles 2.7 per cent and clothing 0.9 per cent).
Domestic production was up in textiles by 4.3 per cent in the first quarter, and 7.1 per cent for the clothing sector.
The order intake situation has markedly improved in the textile sector and in the clothing sector. At the end of March the figure for textiles was 15 per cent and for clothing 3.8 per cent.
Producer prices were up in both segments over the past months, and as per March 2017, the price levels increased by 0.3 per cent in both sectors.
Textile imports fell in the first quarter by 5.6 per cent whereas clothing imports improved by 0.9 per cent.
Institute of Textiles and Clothing (ITC) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) organised the PolyU Fashion Show 2017 that was held on 6th June it featured creative and talented designs of graduating students. For the students, families and friends, the industry and general public this event was a unforgettable and rewarding experience.
25 graduating students from the Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Scheme in Fashion and Textiles presented hundred creative outfits on a runway that measured nearly 80 metres in length, the works were also made available to the public for pre-order on an electronic platform, also for the first time.The annual event, held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre more than 1,600 guestsfrom prominent industries, fashion designers, media etc. attended the show.
The Hon. Felix Chung, Legislative Council Member (Functional Constituency - Textiles and Garment) and Professor John Xin, Head and Chair Professor of ITC, graced the occasion as the officiating guest. Eugene Leung, Founder and Creative Director of the Hong Kong-based brand Injury, was the VIP judge. They had to select the recipient for the Overall Grand Award. Besides, there were many other judges also.Representatives from the event sponsors that provided seven awards and travelling scholarships were also present at the event.
For the first time ITC had worked together with Goxip, a Hong Kong-based fashion discovery app, that featured the works of the 25 finalists on a shoppable Instagram platform and app. The collections of the even carried a wide range of themes, from military, environmental to spiritual themes and many more.
