Cotlook A Index - Cents/lb (Change from previous day)

12-02-2019 79.90 (-1.90)

12-02-2018 87.55

13-02-2017 85.65

New York Cotton Futures (Cents/lb) As on 14.02.2019 (Change from

previous day)

Mar 2019 69.70 (-0.16)

May 2019 71.34 (-0.06)

July 2019 72.68 (+0.24)

14th February

2019

MSME loan bonanza! Rs 20,900 crore loans in just 100 days

under outreach scheme

India's first Centre for Textiles Trends Forecasting soon in

Delhi

Size India: Exercise to measure people to begin next month

Sri Lanka's pioneering SME Digital Platform takes off

Cotton and Yarn Futures

ZCE - Daily Data (Change from previous day)

MCX (Change from previous day)

Feb 2019 20250 (-260)

Cotton 16010 (+150) Mar 2019 20540 (-260)

Yarn 24855 (110) Apr 2019 20800 (-300)

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2 CITI-NEWS LETTER

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MSME loan bonanza! Rs 20,900 crore loans in just 100 days

under outreach scheme

Textiles ministry aims to achieve multiple targets: Secy

India's first Centre for Textiles Trends Forecasting soon in Delhi

Size India: Exercise to measure people to begin next month

U.S. to discuss trade, e-com rules with India

Probe into fall in sales of cotton to CCI

Academicians call for thrust on entrepreneurship

Arvind plans to cut carbon emissions by 30 pc

Silver Crest Clothing to set up ₹100-cr garment unit in AP

TN set to impose heavy fine on violators of plastic ban

Guidelines on Public Procurement

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sri Lanka's pioneering SME Digital Platform takes off

Garment makers getting new buyers

South African unions on national strike over job losses

U-Md. researchers develop smart fabric that automatically

warms or cools you off

South VN eyes increased FDI in manufacturing

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

NATIONAL

---------------------

GLOBAL

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3 CITI-NEWS LETTER

NATIONAL:

MSME loan bonanza! Rs 20,900 crore loans in just 100 days under

outreach scheme

(Source: Financial Express, February 13, 2019)

Kumar said the Department of Financial Services is ensuring that claims filed under the

two insurance schemes are processed in a timely fashion.

Loans to the tune of Rs 20,900 crore have been sanctioned under the 100-day outreach

programme for MSMEs across 104 districts announced in November, a top official said

Wednesday. Secretary in the Department of Financial Services Rajeev Kumar said 33 lakh

MSMEs have been provided facilities under the 100-day outreach programme. Out of

these, 6.36 lakh MSMEs in 39 districts are under the textiles sector. “Loans to the tune of

Rs 20,900 crore have been provided to MSMEs in 104 districts, including Rs 6,500 crore

for the textiles sector enterprises,” Kumar said at an outreach event for MSMEs in the

textiles sector.

In November last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced a slew of

measures, including sanction of loans of up to Rs 1 crore to small and medium enterprises

in 59 minutes through a special portal and 2 per cent interest subvention or rebate for

GST-registered MSMEs on incremental loan of up to Rs 1 crore, among others. He had

also launched the 100 days programme for support and outreach to micro, small and

medium enterprises (MSMEs), identifying 100 districts across the country.

Textile Minister Smriti Irani said as many as 21 crore Indians are linked to the Pradhan

Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, while Rs

3,000 crore has been disbursed as claim amount. “Whether it be Jeevan Jyoti Bima

Yojana or Suraksha Bima Yojana, today 21 crore Indians are linked to these two schemes

and money is disbursed as soon as the claim is filed. Till today Rs 3,000 crore has been

given under these two schemes,” Irani said. Kumar said the Department of Financial

Services is ensuring that claims filed under the two insurance schemes are processed in a

timely fashion.

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4 CITI-NEWS LETTER

Textiles ministry aims to achieve multiple targets: Secy

(Source: SME Times, February 13, 2019)

The Ministry of Textiles, in close collaboration with state Governments and district

administration, strove to achieve the targets in respect of various deliverables, said

Secretary Textiles, Raghvendra Singh.

Weavers’ Service Centres (Field Office for Handlooms) was designated as supervising

agency for effective coordination with banks, district administration and weavers, he

added.

Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Singh, said that special focus was

deliverables in the districts of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Mizoram and Manipur.

In several districts, the deliverables were substantial, for example coverage of almost cent

percent in each district.

Specially for the weavers, yarn-passbooks have been distributed which make available the

required yarn to them at subsidies rates.

The marketing events organised in these districts generated substantial sales during the

100-day period for the artisans and weavers.

Raghvendra Singh told media persons that quality certification is a requirement before e-

commerce. Apart from the awareness campaign, around 53,000 labels were issued,

applications received and registrations done under the Handloom Brand.

Similarly, weavers and artisans were also enrolled under the social security insurance

scheme.

To increase the earnings of the weavers and artisans the Promotion Council for

Handlooms and Handicrafts signed MOUs with Weavers’ Societies and artisans from

amongst the focus district of MSME outreach programme for promoting exports through

design, skill and such other interventions.

Textiles Secretary informed that Centres of Excellence, comprising 55 display outlets have

been set up in Varanasi for the sale of products which are G.I. tagged.

Similarly, children have been facilitated in various districts to avail of the learning

opportunities through IGNOU and NIOS wherein the Textile Ministry provide 75% of the

cost for girls and children belonging to SC,ST and BPL categories.

Tufting frames and carpet looms have been provided to Carpet weavers of Bhadohi in UP.

Home

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5 CITI-NEWS LETTER

India's first Centre for Textiles Trends Forecasting soon in Delhi

(Source: Business Standard, February 13, 2019)

In keeping with its status as a major textiles market as well as exporter, India will soon

have its first Centre for Textiles Trends Forecasting to be set up in the national capital,

an official said on Wednesday.

Briefing reporters here, Textiles Secretary Raghvendra Singh said the proposed centre

had already received government approval and is slated to become operational as early as

within this month in a prime property of the ministry located in the heart of the city.

The complex of facilities in the centre designed to boost India's exports would include

an Incubation and Innovation Centre designed to aid "design interventions" and

incubate textile start-ups, as well as a first of its kind Crafts and Textiles Depository, Singh

said.

"India doesn't have a trend forecasting centre...we depend on international trends, which

we then pass on to the craftsmen to make copies.

"It is high time that we became influencers (of trends)," he said.

Announcing that the forecasting centre would be set up this month, the Secretary said

that it would make use of commercial intelligence in the sector "to forecast what trend

would come in the next six months".

On the proposed Incubation and Innovation Centre for textiles, he said that the Centre

had already approved the setting up of this facility to make "imminent design

interventions" which will also incubate start-ups.

"The Centre is being launched to contemporise efforts in the textiles sector," he added.

He also cited the progress made under the 100-day outreach programme for MSMEs

launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 2 in 100 districts, of which 40

were allotted to the Textiles Ministry.

During this outreach, around 65,000 artisans and 2.5 lakh weavers were issued identity

cards that allow them to avail benefits, Singh said.

"Around 13,000 artisans and 9,500 were enrolled for the Mudra loan facility for

disadvantaged sections which resulted in Rs 6,500 crore worth of loans granted to

MSMEs in the textiles sector," he added.

Home

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6 CITI-NEWS LETTER

Size India: Exercise to measure people to begin next month

(Source: Financial Express, February 13, 2019)

A large percentage of shoppers face difficulty in finding clothes that fit perfectly according

to their body measurements, as there is no standard size chart at present.

Starting next month, the government will launch an exercise to measure a group of people

to prepare comprehensive “India Size” chart, which can be adopted by the country’s

apparel industry, a top official said Wednesday. State-of-the-art machines will be used in

the project for the body measurement of people to develop the standardised size chart.

“We want that we should have Indian size for two things. It can boost our retail market.

South Asian size will also get fillip, plus our own diaspora which is outside, we will become

influence drivers for foreign companies also. We are actually rolling out the exercise in

March itself,” Textiles Secretary Raghvendra Singh told PTI.

He said the government is trying to complete the project as soon as possible, so that a

standardised size chart can be prepared for the ready-to-wear industry, based on body

measurements of the domestic population. According to Singh, the move assumes

significance as in the near future, the country’s retail market along with China is going to

be the biggest in the world. “Therefore this initiative is one element of making an

indigenous effort for occupying that space. Otherwise, you never know, we may end up

making space for others to come in. So, this one effort is an exercise in that direction,” he

said at a press conference here. Singh said the exercise will affect the entire South Asia

because the size has regional variations as well. “We have launched the Size India project.

Right now there is a US size, a UK size but no India Size. We have to wear what we get.

So, we have ordered machines through NIFT which will arrive this month itself,” the

textiles secretary said.

The project approved earlier by the government will entail measuring of 25,000 male and

female Indians in 6 cities across 6 regions of the country: Kolkata (East), Mumbai (West),

New Delhi (North), Hyderabad (Central India), Bengaluru (South) and Shillong (North-

East). Using 3D whole body scanners and computers that will extract hundreds of

measurements from scan. At present, India’s apparel industry uses size charts which are

tweaked versions of sizes of other countries, so returns of the garments are in the range

of 20 per cent to 40 per cent and is increasing with the growth of e-commerce and the

main reason for returns are poor garment fit.

Providing well fitting garments in the absence of standardised size chart is proving to be

a big challenge for the domestic textile and apparel industry, which is projected to reach

USD 123 billion by 2021 and holds 5th position in apparel imports. Once ready, the

standardised size chart will impact various other sectors like automotive, aerospace,

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7 CITI-NEWS LETTER

fitness and sport, art and computer gaming, where insights from this data can produce

ergonomically designed products, which are suited for the domestic population.

A large percentage of shoppers face difficulty in finding clothes that fit perfectly according

to their body measurements, as there is no standard size chart at present. Moreover, there

are differences in anthropometric built of people in different geographical regions across

the country. Till date 14 countries have successfully completed national sizing surveys:

the US, Canada, Mexico, the UK, France, Spain, Germany, Korea, China and Australia.

Home

U.S. to discuss trade, e-com rules with India

(Source: The Hindu, February 13, 2019)

Review of India’s eligibility for GSP may figure in talks between Ambassador Juster,

Minister Prabhu

U.S. Ambassador Kenneth I. Juster will lead a delegation of officials to hold talks with

Union Commerce Minister Suresh Prabhu on Thursday to resolve several sore trade

points, including the concerns of American CEOs regarding doing business in India and

bilateral trade imbalance.

The status of the review of India’s eligibility for the Generalised System of Preferences

(GSP) is also likely to come up in the light of recent developments where the U.S. has

again threatened to withdraw the export exemptions for India. U.S. Commerce Secretary

Wilbur Ross will participate via video conferencing. Other issues that had particularly

incensed American businesses are India’s new data localisation rules that force foreign

companies to store Indians’ data within the country, and rules amending FDI rules in e-

commerce that had hurt American giants like Amazon and Walmart. These are likely to

be high on the agenda of Thursday’s Indo-U.S. CEO Forum.

Higher import tariffs

Trade tensions between the two countries rose last March when U.S. President Donald

Trump notified the imposition of higher import tariffs on steel and aluminium, which

affected several countries, including India. In retaliation, India announced counter-tariffs

on 29 American goods, worth about $235 million, but has delayed implementing them in

the hope of resolving the matter.

President Trump’s order was followed closely by the office of the U.S. Trade

Representative (USTR) announcing that it was putting India’s eligibility for GSP — under

which India is allowed duty-free exports to the U.S. for about 2,000 product lines — under

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8 CITI-NEWS LETTER

review. While the move was protested by the Indian government and industry chambers

alike, the review was still in progress.

“GSP boosts the competitiveness of American manufacturers by lowering their costs,”

Sanjay Budhia, chairman, CII National Committee on EXIM, said. “Approximately two-

thirds of U.S. imports under GSP are raw materials, components, or machinery and

equipment used by U.S. companies to manufacture goods in the U.S. for domestic

consumption or for export. These benefits are real.”

The USTR received applications to review India’s GSP eligibility from the National Milk

Producers Federation and the US Dairy Export Council, and the another from the

Advanced Medical Technology Association.

“As described in the India Chapter of the 2018 National Trade Estimate Report on Foreign

Trade Barriers, India has implemented a wide array of trade barriers that create serious

negative effects on U.S. commerce,” the USTR notice document said. Mr. Ross will also

try to resolve trade imbalance between India and the U.S., a sore point raised by President

Trump. India's exports to the U.S. in 2017-18 stood at $47.9 billion, while imports were

$26.7 billion. He had earlier raised the issue of unequal trade and tariffs between the two

countries, especially India’s seemingly high import tariffs on Harley Davidson

motorcycles.

Home

Probe into fall in sales of cotton to CCI

(Source: The Hindu, February 13, 2019)

Vigilance officials conduct inquiry in market yard

A team of officials from the Vigilance Department, Karimnagar, conducted inquiries in

the Adilabad Agriculture Market yard in order to ascertain the reasons for farmers not

selling cotton to Cotton Corporation of India though the market rate of the commercial

crop was falling below the minimum support price of ₹ 5,450.

The CCI was making purchases in the market at the MSP as per the inherent regulations

with regard to moisture content.

The team consisted of two officials of inspector of police rank who interacted with the

farmers asking them for reasons. They, however, did not wish to be identified and said

they will submit a report after the exercise to their department.

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9 CITI-NEWS LETTER

It may be stated here that the price of cotton has been falling consistently in markets

across the district. It had fallen from ₹ 5,130 per quintal on Tuesday to ₹ 5,115 on

Wednesday in Adilabad market.

The Vigilance officials also inquired about the role of middlemen in the trading process.

Apparently suspecting that many of those who brought the produce to the market were

not bonafide farmers, they asked some of them for documents supporting their identity.

The officials also identified vehicles with Maharashtra registration plates and isolated

them so that they could carry out their inquiries. They were wary of the fact that

middlemen and other outsiders were purchasing cotton for low price and selling it off at

a higher price in the market.

Home

Academicians call for thrust on entrepreneurship

(Source: New Delhi Times, February 14, 2019)

Academicians stressed on the need for inculcating entrepreneurship among the youth at

the three-day "North Bihar Conclave" hosted by the Purnea University which concluded

here on Wednesday.

A highlight of the conclave was setting up of an "entrepreneurship cell" at the Purnea

University, in collaboration with Colorado-based "Youth Lab" founded by Bihar-

born serial entrepreneur Ajay Jha.

Speaking on the occasion, Vice Chancellor of thePurnea University Rajesh Singh said,

"Bihar is known for producing labourers on one hand, and bureaucrats on the other. The

time has come to encourage entrepreneurship among the people here in view of the

emerging international trends".

Jha said, "We would be working with the university to increase employability among the

young generation. There is plenty of scope in areas like agro-based industries, textiles,

fisheries, health care and IT sectors."

Among those who took part in the three-day conclave were Tanveer Alam, joint director of

the Indian Institute of Packaging based in New Delhi, and vice-chancellors of various

other universities.

Home

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10 CITI-NEWS LETTER

Arvind plans to cut carbon emissions by 30 pc

(Source: Economic Times, February 13, 2019)

According to the statement, it has currently installed 16.2 MW rooftop solar at its Santej

facility in Gujarat. This is India's largest installation of rooftop solar at a single location.

Textile firm Arvind Wednesday said it plans to reduce carbon emissions by 30 per cent

with the installation of rooftop solar projects across its facilities in three cities and by

shifting from coal to renewable biomass for boilers. As company ramps up the three-

phase installation, it plans to target 40 MW captive solar capacity, a company statement

said.

According to the statement, it has currently installed 16.2 MW rooftop solar at its Santej

facility in Gujarat. This is India's largest installation of rooftop solar at a single location.

The rooftop solar installation across facilities will generate 22 million units (KWh) of

power per annum. It will contribute in reducing 20,000 tonnes of carbon emissions

annually and over 5,00,000 tonnes of carbon emissions over its lifetime. Once capacity

of 40 MW is reached, overall generation will exceed 55 million units per year and will

reduce carbon emissions by 50,000 tonnes per annum.

Speaking about this initiative, Punit Lalbhai, Executive Director, Arvind said in the

statement, "The solar rooftops project is part of our renewable energy strategy which will

reduce our carbon emissions significantly and we are working to make sure that every one

of our facilities and offices will one day run entirely on renewable energy."

Arvind's current solar installation has been ranked by Bridge2India as the largest single

site solar rooftop plant in India, he added.

This project at Santej is comprised of over 46,000 solar modules, and over 180 inverters.

More than 20,000 man-days were spent in installing this landmark and over 40,000

square meter of old roofs were replaced to make way for this plant.

In 2016, the company initiated the first phase with installation of 4MW of rooftop solar

at its Ahmedabad and Bangalore plants. The second phase commenced in February 2018

with the addition of 17 MW.

The third phase will include installation of solar plants on the ground and at locations

close to facilities, which will take total installed capacity to 40 MW. The company's total

current solar power generation capacity stands at 21 MW across facilities, it added.

Home

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11 CITI-NEWS LETTER

Silver Crest Clothing to set up ₹100-cr garment unit in AP

(Source: The Hindu Business Line, February 14, 2019)

Silver Crest Clothing Private Limited has signed up with the Andhra Pradesh Economic

Development Board to set up of ₹100 crore readymade garment manufacturing unit in

Andhra Pradesh.

The factory will have a capacity of 20.4 million units per year and potentially generate

direct employment of over 2,250 and indirect employment of 250.

The MoU was signed by J Krishna Kishore, Chief Executive Officer, APEDB and Jeet

Golcha, Director, Silver Crest Clothing.

Established in 1995, Silver Crest is a major manufacturer of fine tailored clothing in South

Asia and manufacturer of high quality suits for an array of leading brands across US, with

growing presence in France and UK.

The firm has a capacity to make over four million garments per year across four facilities

in Bengaluru and currently employs 7,700. The firm has captured a significant share of

tailored clothing, and caters to many international clients.

Kishore said in a statement, “This MoU is a step in the right direction as textiles is a

priority sector for the government of Andhra Pradesh and the government envisages

increasing productivity and efficiency in the cotton-to-garment value chain”.

Golcha said, “We are excited to align with Andhra Pradesh’s industry friendly new textile

policy and make small contributions to the impact it is making within the State and the

nation.”

Andhra Pradesh unveiled a new textile policy 2018-23 which aims to attract investments

worth ₹15,000 crores and create 2.5 lakh jobs in the State.

Home

TN set to impose heavy fine on violators of plastic ban

(Source: Julie Mariappan, Times of India, February 13, 2019)

The Tamil Nadu government on Wednesday introduced a bill in the state legislature,

amending the municipal laws to fix penalty for violation of ban on some plastic products.

The penalty will range between Rs 25,000 and Rs 1 lakh. If a person commits the offence

for the fourth time, the trade licence issued by the local bodies will be cancelled.

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12 CITI-NEWS LETTER

“In order to implement the ban in letter and spirt, the laws relating to municipal

corporations and municipalities will have to be amended so as to make the provisions

regarding the prevention of the said plastic items and enable the council to levy a fine for

violation of the said provisions,” municipal administration minister S P Velumani said,

while introducing the bill to amend the Chennai City Municipal Corporation Act, 1919,

Tamil Nadu District Municipalities Act, 1920, Madurai City Municipal Corporation Act,

1971, and Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation Act, 1981.

The fine for first time offence of storage, supply, transport, sale and distribution of single

use and throwaway plastics will be Rs 25,000. It will be Rs 50,000 for the second time

and Rs 1 lakh for the third-time offence. Use and distribution of single use and throwaway

plastics in large commercial establishments like malls, textile shops and super markets

will invite a penalty of Rs 10,000, Rs 15,000 and Rs 25,000 for the first, second and third

time offence respectively.

Medium commercial establishments like grocery shops and pharmaceuticals shops will

have to pay a fine of Rs 1,000 for the first-time violation, Rs 2,000 for the second-time

and Rs 5,000 for the third time. Small commercial vendors will be levied a fine of Rs 100

for the first-time. Second and third time offenders will have to pay a fine of Rs 200 and

Rs 500, respectively. The bill will be taken up for discussion on Thursday, the last day of

the budget session.

Home

Guidelines on Public Procurement

(Source: New Delhi Times, February 14, 2019)

The Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India), Order 2017 (as amended on

28.05.2018) (PPP-MII Order) was issued pursuant to Rule 153(iii) of the General

Financial Rules 2017 as an enabling provision to promote domestic value addition in

public procurement. The policy aims at incentivizing production linked through local

content requirements, thereby encouraging domestic manufacturers’ participation in

public procurement activities over entities merely importing to trade or assemble items.

This Order is applicable on procurement of goods, services and works (including turnkey

works) by a Central Ministry, Department, their attached, subordinate offices,

autonomous bodies controlled by the Government of India, Government companies, their

Joint Ventures and Special Purpose Vehicles. As per PPP-MII Order, purchase preference

is given to local suppliers who meet the minimum local content requirement. Further,

various Ministries and Departments have been designated as nodal for notifying

minimum local content for the relevant product categories.

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13 CITI-NEWS LETTER

Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Ministry of

Electronics & Information technology, Department of Heavy Industry, Department of

Pharmaceuticals, Ministry of Steel, Ministry of Railways, Department for Promotion of

Industry and Internal Trade, Department of Fertilizers, Department of Defence

Production, Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Shipping, Ministry of

Mines, Department of Chemicals & Petrochemicals, Ministry of New & Renewal Energy

and Ministry of Textiles have issued notifications for Minimum Local Contents.

The notifications issued by Nodal Ministries and Departments are available on the

departmental website dipp.gov.in. Ministry of Civil Aviation, Department of Defence and

Ministry of Power are yet to issue the notification for Minimum Local Contents for their

respective product segments.

Following mechanism has been put in place for strict monitoring of implementation of

PPP-MII Order by Central Government agencies:

1) All procuring entities have to certify compliance with the provisions of the Order

while publishing any tender on Central Public Procurement Portal.

2) Stakeholders can lodge online complaint on Central Public Procurement Portal

for alleged violation of the Order.

3) A Cell has been created in DPIIT to take up grievances for alleged violation of

the Order with procuring entities.

4) Grievance redressal and sector specific meetings are held to resolve the

grievances.

5) Standing Committee has been constituted under PPP – MII Order to oversee the

implementation.

The proposed new Industrial Policy is to be a roadmap for all business enterprises

in the country. In this regard, consultations have been held with stakeholders to

get their ideas and feedback.

Home

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14 CITI-NEWS LETTER

GLOBAL:

Sri Lanka's pioneering SME Digital Platform takes off

(Source: Colombo Page, February 13, 2019)

Backed by a Singaporean firm's generous grant of a powerful database software, Sri Lanka

began work on the first national digital databank of its SMEs and entrepreneurs on

Tuesday, Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen said.

The initiative, called NEDA-EMS, pioneered by the country's apex entrepreneurship

agency National Enterprise Development Agency (NEDA), will execute a nationwide

centralized database of all SMEs and entrepreneurs thereby boosting the performance of

the critical economic sector very significantly.

Meanwhile, first ever data collected from this digital platform's latest pilot tests showed

that almost two-thirds of the MSMEs digitally captured, focused in the 'consumer'

segment, followed by 'agriculture' and 'textiles'.

Addressing the NEDA's InfoComm Digital Age project launch yesterday (12) Minister

Bathiudeen said the initiative is also in keeping with similar upcoming digital databases

in the South Asian region. "Therefore today's effort brings our SME sector in par with

South Asia's SME digitalization efforts."

Chairman - Director General of NEDA Dakshitha Bogollagma, CEO of Singapore's RES

Group, Ms Trina Savage, Chief Technical Advisor-ILO Colombo Thomas Kring, and

Additional Secretary M Thajudeen also participated in the event.

On a personal request of NEDA Chairman Dakshitha Bogollagma, the software/database

component of the EMS project was granted as a free gift to NEDA by its Singaporean

maker RES Group. NEDA is equipping its field 'development' officers with 250 Tablet PCs

to be used as data collection terminals to upload captured entrepreneur data in real-time.

At the launch, Minister Bathiudeen also distributed the Tablet PCs to NEDA field

personnel who flocked from all over Sri Lanka.

In Stage I of the project, NEDA will collect data from 150,000 entrepreneurs and SMEs

active with it and in later stages, the EMS will cover the more than one million MSME eco

system in the country.

Minister Bathiudeen said NEDA's overall aim is bringing the Sri Lankan micro small and

medium entrepreneurs and their enterprises to a centralized digital platform and the

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15 CITI-NEWS LETTER

Info-comm digital platform will result in the first such digital database for SME and

entrepreneurship sectors of Sri Lanka.

"NEDA's SME Policy aims to create a significant number of technologically driven

sustainable SMEs. The policy framework identifies special technology transfer to promote

the adoption of modern technology by SMEs and dissemination of information on

technology resources as a challenge faced by our SMEs. In that we believe that our SMEs

to progress, their technology adoption too should be increased. On the other hand

MSME's technology adoption to be successful, it is important that supporting

stakeholders too should adopt and use technology. If the supporting agency is not familiar

with technology then transferring them to entrepreneurs becomes a huge challenge.

Therefore we start off with giving Tablet PCs to NEDA officials."

Chairman �DG of NEDA Dakshitha Bogollagama said that current data entries at NEDA

are manually done. "This is a very slow process and time consuming. Time has come to

change it. The paper based recordings at NEDA are difficult to update continuously. Such

old information are not presentable to any investor nor a buyer. This new system will be

live 24�7. It also helps NEDA administration since our own employees' KPIs can be

measured by this system."

Making an eye opening presentation, Ms Trina Savage, CEO of Singapore's RES Group,

said that the pilot test stream in Sri Lanka has already digitalized 9141 small business

from five provinces. "We need to move with latest changes or else we would be left behind.

This is true for Lankan SMEs too. Their main business focuses as per our system are

manufacturing, production and marketing," she said.

Her presentation showed that of the 9141 SMEs, 66% in consumer segment (products and

services), followed by agriculture (20%) and textiles (14%).

The overall cost of entire NEDA - EMS project is estimated at around $280,000. Of this,

the software/database component is valued at US$ 147000 and it has been granted as a

gift to NEDA by Singapore's RES Group.

Home

Garment makers getting new buyers

(Source: The Daily Star, February 14, 2019)

Bangladeshi textile and garment manufacturers received positive response from

international retailers at the Texworld exhibition currently taking place in the French

capital, in what can be viewed as further encouragement for the country's apparel

exporters.

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16 CITI-NEWS LETTER

Texworld is an international trade fair of the clothing and textile industry that takes place

every six months in Le Bourget near Paris. It is one of the biggest exhibitions in the world

where hundreds of buyers, manufacturers, suppliers and brands exhibit their products in

Paris in France. The four-day mega event will end today.

"At least 35 new buyers came to me to place work orders in the first day of the fair," said

Mohammad Abdullah Zaber, deputy managing director of Noman Group, the mother

company of Zaber and Zubair, a leading local fabrics manufacturer and garment exporter.

Noman Group is the only apparel and fabrics manufacturing company in Bangladesh

which crossed the one billion dollar mark in exports from the country four years ago.

"We have been getting more work orders for some reasons like we have new and

diversified goods, new designs and our stall is located at the elite zone of the fair. Elite

zone is allocated to select manufacturers," Zaber told The Daily Star at his stall in

Texworld in Paris on Tuesday.

Another important reason for higher responses is the shorter lead time in the era of fast

fashion. For example, the buyers want to use local fabrics so that the work orders can be

catered very fast.

The Zaber and Zubair has its own fabrics so it does not need to import fabrics from China,

India, Turkey or Pakistan to stitch as garment.

It takes four weeks to bring fabrics from China which also lengthens the lead time. If the

factories can make garment items from local fabrics it takes a shorter lead time, he said.

Now the buyers are booking the work orders for next summer's sales which will start from

the first of January next year, said Zaber.

The US-China trade war has also been playing a significant role for more work orders

being grabbed from buyers by Bangladeshi garment exporters, said Zaber who is investing

more than Tk 1,000 crore in his four new projects at Bhaluka to produce synthetic fabrics

as per the demand from the buyers.

"Now many Bangladeshi garment factories import the synthetic fabrics mainly from

China. If we can set up the new units, we can supply this item locally," he added.

He is also going to produce fabrics for sports garment items and outerwear. So the total

workforce under the Noman Group will be 110,000 when the four new units go into

operation by next two years. Currently the group has 80,000 workers.

Buyers are demanding sustainable goods made from recycled yarn and fabrics made

through less water consumption, Zaber said.

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17 CITI-NEWS LETTER

"We need to bring in more companies from Bangladesh to Texworld so that the buyers

can know more about us," said Md Shahidul Haque Mukul, managing director of Adams

Styles Ltd sitting in his stall at Texworld in Paris. Some 29 garment and fabrics

manufacturers have participated in the Texworld this time.

Bangladesh is quite a matured country in garment and fabrics as the country is very much

capable of producing diversified products.

But people of the world are not aware of this diversification. For instance, denim is a very

good success case story for Bangladesh in recent times, he said.

Among the diversified garment products, denim could show its strength. Now people

know about the strength of Bangladeshi denim products, he said.

"We need ease in obtaining visas so that many representatives from many companies can

participate in this unique exhibition," Mukul said.

Some participants could not come here due to visa problems although stalls were

allocated for them, he said.

"I got 25 old and new buyers in the first two days of the fair. We are happy with the

responses from the buyers," said Mohammad Robayed Suddique, deputy general

manager (sales and marketing) of Argon Denims Limited and Evince Textiles Limited,

two leading fabrics manufacturers.

"We have been receiving an increased number of work orders from our buyers over the

last six months which indicates that Bangladesh is becoming a beneficiary of the US-

China trade war," said Siddique.

"The European markets are major ones for us. Nearly the full production of my factory is

shipped to the European markets. So, I am satisfied with the responses from the buyers,"

he said.

Home

South African unions on national strike over job losses

(Source: The Peoples World. Org, February 14, 2019)

Trade unionists across South Africa are walking out in a national strike as the country

faces a shutdown over “privatization, retrenchment and imperialism.”

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18 CITI-NEWS LETTER

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) called the strike – which is

backed by affiliated unions covering most sectors including schools, hospitals, mining and

textile workers – over job losses and privatization.

Figures released by Statistics South Africa today showed that there were 6.1 million people

without jobs in the three months to the end of December 2018, one of the highest

unemployment rates in the world.

The South African Communist Party (SACP) backed the walkout, calling for a national

strategy to deal with job losses “higher than at workplace level.”

It claimed in a statement that the real “crisis level unemployment rate” was as high as 38

per cent, according to the expanded definition of unemployment. It said 9.8 million South

Africans are unemployed, requiring “economy-wide interventions” to tackle the issue.

Cosatu affiliate the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers Union

(CEPPWAWU)warned of attempts by the ANC-led government to erode hard fought gains

of the labor movement.

In a statement the CEPPWAWU said: “The responsibility falls upon all our members and

the entire working class to revolt against privatization, retrenchments, unemployment

and imperialism.”

The South African Democratic Teachers’ Union (SADTU) – the largest education workers’

union in the country – said its members were joining the strike, warning of unsafe schools

“targeted by criminals.”

It called on the government to fund more teachers with overcrowded classrooms having

a negative impact on children’s learning and called for the strike to be legally protected

by the issuing of a certificate.

The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) will be joining today’s

action calling on its members to walk out across all provinces to “highlight the negative

impact of job losses in both the private and public health sectors in the country. “

The union is demanding government action to “fill vacant nursing positions in many

health facilities in the country so that quality healthcare can be provided to communities.”

The action is the first national strike since President Cyril Ramaphosa came to power in

February 2018.

Cosatu spokesman Sizwe Pamla said: “The strike is about fighting the ongoing job losses

across all the sectors of the economy.”

Home

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19 CITI-NEWS LETTER

U-Md. researchers develop smart fabric that automatically warms or cools

you off

(Source: Peter Holley, Washington Post, February 14, 2019)

The new material could be worn to lower the cost of air conditioning and heating,

researchers say.

If you work in a large office building, there’s a decent chance you tailor your attire to two

separate weather forecasts.

There’s the outdoor weather, an evolving state of dynamic atmospheric conditions

dictated by seasonal patterns. Then there’s the indoor weather, an evolving state of

arbitrary conditions dictated by an all-powerful being known as the building manager, an

individual whose atmospheric whims unleash equal amounts of cursing and praise.

While you luxuriate in a cold blast of air conditioning on a hot summer day, your co-

worker bundles under a fleece blanket, shivering and miserable.

But there may come a time — my fellow office mates — when the building manager’s

power is reclaimed by the common worker. Researchers from the University of Maryland

say they have created a fabric that responds to its wearer, regulating the amount of heat

that passes through the material.

If you’re sweating on a hot summer day, for example, the fabric allows heat to escape. But

when the outside temperature is cooler and the air drier, and your body gets cooler, the

fabric becomes more compact, retaining heat from the wearer’s body, researchers say.

The researcher’s paper, “Dynamic gating of infrared radiation in a textile,” was published

in the journal Science.

[A Lime scooter accident left Ashanti Jordan in a vegetative state. Now her mother is

suing on her behalf.]

YuHuang Wang — a U-Md. professor of chemistry and biochemistry who co-wrote the

study — said he envisions a time in the not-so-distant future when clothing becomes a

“secondary skin” that helps people save energy and reduce the costs of air conditioning

and heating by relying on them less intensely or shut them off entirely.

“This technology would allow you to regulate your local environment and that would give

people a much wider tolerability for the heating and cooling conditions inside a building,”

Wang said.

“How much could you get people to change their habits,” he said, referring to using

clothing to offset energy costs, “that’s certainly an additional challenge.”

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20 CITI-NEWS LETTER

Three-quarters of all homes in the United States have air conditioners, which use about 6

percent of all electricity produced in the United States, according to the U.S. Department

of Energy. In addition to costing homeowners $29 billion annually, air conditioners

release roughly 117 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the air each year, the agency

reports.

Beyond reducing energy consumption, the research offers a potential solution to another

long-standing challenge, one that has inspired countless Inspector Gadget-like patents

over the years: creating clothing that actively cools the wearer.

In 2015, Finnish researchers, inspired by the design of the human cardiovascular system,

developed “a way of adding a plastic film containing microscopic channels filled with

liquid to jackets and other clothes,” according to the Daily Mail.

By filling the clothing with liquid, the clothing could be cooled or provide insulation, the

paper reported.

Across the globe in Japan, researchers looking for novel solutions to energy shortages,

unveiled air-conditioned garments equipped with small battery-powered fans that could

reportedly provide cooling air for up to 11 hours at a time, according to the Telegraph.

[How one university changed overnight when it let 25 semiautonomous robots roam its

campus]

The fabric created by the U-Md. researchers doesn’t rely on batteries or liquid.

It starts with a specially engineered yarn coated with a conductive metal. When conditions

are warm and humid — such as when the wearer is working out and sweating — the

strands of yarn activate the coating, which in turn warps the strands of yarn, bringing

them closer together. Once that happens, researchers say, pores in the fabric open,

allowing trapped heat to escape. When conditions are cold, however, the process is

reversed, and heat remains close to the body.

To explain where the concept for the fabric originated, Wang compares the human body

to an engine — one that coverts food energy to heat.

“If we are completely naked, our body is a perfect radiator that gives off heat so rapidly,”

he said. “Most of our clothing is actually a good radiator, but we don’t control that

radiator. We wanted to create a mechanism to control the heat being released by the

body.”

Though the fabric has been in development for about five years, Wang said researchers

are just beginning the process of turning it into a commercial product, most probably as

a type of athletic wear initially. He said the fabric can be dyed different colors, knitted and

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21 CITI-NEWS LETTER

washed, offering the same durability as other commercial fabrics. Wang said he believes

this clothing could have applications for people beyond cyclists and skiers.

“The performance may be effective for babies who need constant temperatures or perhaps

the elderly or people who are sick,” he said.

Home

South VN eyes increased FDI in manufacturing

(Source: Vietnam Net, February 13, 2019)

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in manufacturing in the Southern Key Economic Zone last

year exceeded the target, and authorities in the provinces and cities comprising the zone

are hoping the trend will continue.

“In 2018 Binh Duong Province focused on attracting FDI in processing and

manufacturing, trade, services and technology,” Nguyen Thanh Truc, director of the

provincial Department of Planning and Investment, told Dau Tu (Viet Nam Investment

Review) newspaper.

Binh Duong was the fourth biggest recipient of FDI in the country with US$2.2 billion.

“There were a number of large projects getting licences,” Truc said.

They included two logistics and industrial real estate projects by the US-based Warburg

Pincus in joint venture with Becamex IDC Corporation at Bau Bang and My Phuoc 3

Industrial Parks with total capital of $135 million.

Japan’s Gunze Plastics & Engineering set up a plastics project worth $40 million.

“This year, Binh Duong will promote FDI in high-quality services, industrial development

support services, environment-friendly industries, and industries that are not labour-

intensive,” Truc said.

“We will co-operate with industrial parks to promote infrastructure and trade promotion

and review and support those seeking to expand production.”

According to a master plan for industrial parks for the period up to 2020, the 600-hectare

Lai Hung Industrial Park in Bau Bang District will be used for science and technology

enterprises.

The province has worked with a Dutch partner since early last year to promote the park.

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22 CITI-NEWS LETTER

At the end of last year the $1 billion packaging project of Taiwan’s Cheng Loong Binh

Duong Paper company completed the first stage of construction and began operations.

It received a licence in 2015 and is expected to invest a further $700 million.

The planning and investment department of neighbouring Dong Nai revealed that the

province attracted nearly $1.9 billion worth of FDI, 91 per cent higher than targeted.

They included 33 projects with investment capital of over $10 million each.

Le Hoai Quoc, head of the Sai Gon High-Tech Park management, reported late last year

that US electric car manufacturer is considering putting up a $500 million plant to

produce batteries.

Viet Nam has signed off on many new-version free trade agreements, which is thought to

be the most important factor in attracting FDI in manufacturing, especially in industries

like textile and garment, furniture, food processing, and electronics accessories.

“It is hoped that more large FDI projects will arrive in the Southern Key Economic Zone

this year,” Truc added.

Home

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