Members of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) recently met in Cambodia and pledged to support the development of the textile and garment in the region to boost competitiveness.
The ASEAN Federation of Textile Industries (AFTEX), which is the apex textile body for all textile enterprises in the region, will be given the onus of developing the plan to increase cooperation and ensure growth of the industry.
ASEAN also proposes to set up a full service alliance amongst the top three textile exporters in the region, viz; Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand. This is expected to help cut costs by integrating between down and upstream industries of all the three countries.
This alliance between the three countries would be a pilot project of sorts and subject to the success of this project; the cooperation would be extended to between more countries. Buyers would not need to maintain offices in different countries, for their dealings within the alliance countries as the alliance would become a one point contact.
The member countries of the ASEAN account for over US $30 billion worth of textile and garment exports, including $10.8 billion from Indonesia, $9.3 billion from Vietnam, about $8 billion from Thailand and $2.5 billion from Cambodia
Fibre2fashion News Desk - India