The Hindu Business Line : Apparel exporters to meet in Mumbai for 2-day workshop

WITH the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing nearing its end, 200 exporters of apparel and textiles goods from seven countries will meet in Mumbai for a training workshop to help them adapt to radically changed market prospects.

"After December 31, 2004, the market share of companies in each country will no longer be determined by quotas (the case for over 40 years) but by their competitiveness," said Mr Ramamurti Badrinath, Director of Trade Support Services of the Geneva-based International Trade Centre, in a press release.

The International Trade Centre is helping firms in developing countries to benchmark their performance so that they can compete in the changed market.

FiT, a software-based tool, enables small and medium-sized firms to evaluate their performance compared to firms at home and abroad in four categories: management and operations, marketing and sales, financial planning and sourcing.

The two-day workshop, which began on December 13, will also see the launch of the International Trade Centre's FiT. Participants will be a mix of government officials, representatives of the private sector and delegates from Bangladesh, Bhutan, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The workshop is being jointly organised by the International Trade Centre and the Textiles Committee of India.

The FiT was pilot-tested successfully in 15 countries including Cambodia, India, Lesotho, Mauritius, Nepal, Thailand and Turkey. It reflects the demands of major importers in the European Union, Japan and the US, which were surveyed in the development of the tool.

Two more FiT workshops in New Delhi and Chennai early next year are expected to attract 150 exporters each. Totally, 500 developing country exporters will have been trained in FiT in the country within a few months. In 2005, the International Trade Centre will organise similar regional workshops in South America and South-East Asia.

Some observers predict that by 2005-06, major textiles and clothing buyers in developed countries will have reduced by half the number of countries from which they buy.

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