Bangladesh's Strict Forex Regulations Could Delay Gujarat Textile Park

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Bangladesh's Strict Forex Regulations Could Delay Gujarat Textile Park

Some months ago, a delegation of Bangladeshi apparel exporters had visited Gujarat, and identified Kadi, near Ahmedabad as the area to set up a textile park.

This was a strategic move which would help garmenters source cotton from India, spin the yarn, weave the fabric, reduce logistics costs and delays, and convert the fabric into garment in Bangladesh which is the most competitive in garmenting.

According to Dr. Chandan Chatterjee, Advisor, iNDEXTb, and Director, Center For Entrepreneurship Development, "The Bangladesh textile park will be a slow process. Bangladesh has very stringent forex rules, it will take time for investments to come to India from this country. The idea was to carry out spinning, weaving, even processing in the park here, and garmenting would happen in Bangladesh."

Further elaborating on the plan, he said, "Bangladesh apparel manufacturers and exporters want to come to India to set up textile facilities as even they know that eventually India will stop cotton and maybe even yarn exports. Today, due to international relations we have allowed 25 lakh bales of cotton exports."

According to him, "The government thinking is to stop cotton and yarn exports eventually, as only that will push the Indian industry to move to weaving, processing and garmenting, where value addition can be 500%. The government is no longer looking at too much fiscal support. But these kind of schemes will help industry to value add."