Time to capture world markets, with growth, scale, speed and volume: Goyal

New Delhi: Union minister for textiles, Piyush Goyal on Friday said that it was time for the Indian textile industry to focus on scale, quality, speed, and volumes. Addressing the keynote session of ‘Technotex 2023: Envisioning Indian Technical Textiles @2047‘, the minister said that this was the right time to capture world markets.

“It is time we started looking at scale and more composite plants, to use more modern technology, thereby also enabling us to meet the needs of large corporate buyers across the world. Many international companies tell me that they are not able to find high-quality high volume suppliers, even though many would prefer to have a relationship with India and work with a democracy with transparent rule-based systems. In this context, it is time we look at growth, scale and speed,“ he said.

“Our Free Trade Agreements with UAE and Australia came into force last year. We are also working on agreements with other countries including those of the European Union. The direction is to become an international player; no country has become a developed nation without playing an integral role in the global supply chain. We have to integrate our economy with those of the developed countries to reach our potential and the desire of our young population,” he stated.

The minister said that given the vast range of usage for technical textiles, this is the area of the future. “I appeal to startups as well as large corporations to consider expanding rapidly in the technical textiles field. Our share of the global market is about 2.5%; I believe that the Indian market will grow faster than 12% if we are able to showcase its purposes.”

“The technical textile sector will enable us to find applications in modern technology areas. Technical textiles are going to be used increasingly in ocean ships and in the airline industry as well.”

Goyal said that Technotex will help showcase the country’s abilities to Indian companies and the rest of the world. “More webinars, seminars and conferences with technical people from different user sectors should be held, where the textiles industry can showcase the various applications of technical textiles.”

He exhorted the domestic industry to earn the trust of the world as reliable suppliers of technical textiles, so that the market share of India can be significantly expanded.

Speaking of India’s G20 Presidency, the minister asked the textiles industry to capture opportunities afforded by G20 meetings to do business with friendly countries.

He recalled the 5-F principle of farm to fibre to factory to fashion to foreign espoused by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the way forward for the industry.

Speaking of the ₹1,480 crore National Technical Textile Mission, the minister urged the industry and stakeholders to examine what new research, compounds, fabrics, composites and final products can be leveraged in order to capture the global market.

“We will be happy to offer all eight Textile Research Associations and other government institutes to support any private sector initiative, to get high quality scientific rigour into your innovations and fast-track your proposals,“ he added.