UP Govt. Team Woos Tirupur Knitwear Makers to Invest In Their State

Trade & Policy

UP Govt. Team Woos Tirupur Knitwear Makers to Invest In Their State

An Uttar Pradesh state government team was on a crack visit to Tirupur to encourage knitwear industrialists down south to participate and invest to form a textile cluster in their home state. The team comprising two members, namely Mrityunjay Kumar Narayan, the secretary to UP chief minister, and Sunil Yadav, assistant director of handloom and textiles, paid their visit to the Nethaji apparel Park located in New Tirupur which is a garment manufacturing hub.

The purpose of the crack team’s visit was to garner interest and participation in the soon to be held UP Investors Summit slated for February 21-22. Narayan and Yadav made their presentations in front of an audience of prospective investors and held discussions with members of South Indian Hosieries Manufacturers Association (SIHMA) at the latter’s office recently.

According to Joint Secretary of SIHMA, Shashi Agarwal, “Compared to other states, the UP government team’s offer was very attractive. It included subsidies in capital and machinery investments; transportation expenditures; tax benefits; employee provident fund and employee state insurance. The government team from Uttar Pradesh announced their intentions to set up special purpose vehicle (SPV) and textile parks to establish needed infrastructure.”

The government team has invited industrialists to invest in Uttar Pradesh and participate in the state’s investor summit. It was discussed that since Tirupur as a garment hub has reached the saturation point in the knitwear business, they could expand their spheres of influence to greener pastures in Uttar Pradesh, where labour shortage and other such issues will not plague the investors.

The team pointed out that a substantial portion of the industry’s labour force comprised people from UP, Bihar, Odisha and North-Eastern states and it would pose a great advantage to invest in a labour surplus state like Uttar Pradesh.

Raja M Shanmugham, president of Tirupur Exporters’ Association (TEA) said, “The textile industry is one which can help to generate large number of employments. Many states, of late, were trying to woo Tirupur industrialists. We have expertise in each processes including embroidery and printing in the cluster, which could thrive significantly with proper knowledge sharing.”