Archive for November, 2006
German garment maker opens up
Viet Nam News, Vietnam
(29-11-2006)
HA NOI — Van Laack Asia, a German-invested garment maker, yesterday launched its US$3 million manufacturing facility, making garments for export in the Ngoc Hoi Industrial Zone in Ha Noi’s Thanh Tri District.
The plant, equipped with advanced German technology, covers a land area of 10,000sq.m. It is expected to produce more than 600,000 garments per year, meeting European standards, and will generate 600 jobs
Speaking at the opening ceremony yesterday, Christian von Daniels, CEO of van Laack GmbH, said, “In 1992, we selected Viet Nam as a production site outside Germany for our expansion of operations despite the fact that, at that point in time, no other investors had any experience in Viet Nam. Today, when Viet Nam has become a member of the WTO and the investment relations between the two countries flourish, we strongly believe we made the right decision.”
Van Laack GmbH has 125 years experience in the apparel industry, with 80 retail stores in 70 countries. The group has six plants outside Germany with total production capacity of over 1.4 million products per year.
Viet Nam recently beat out North Africa, China, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Eastern European to become the home of van Laack’s sixth garment factory.
German Ambassador to Viet Nam Christian Ludwig Weber-Lortsch praised the expansion of investment by van Laack Asia, viewing it as a symbol of successful German investment in Viet Nam. He expressed his hopes that more German enterprises would invest in Viet Nam. — VNS
November 30th, 2006
Garment industry upgradation to start soon
The News - International, Pakistan
LAHORE: The project of Technical Upgradation of Garments Industry will start soon with an objective to enhance productivity and competitiveness of this vital segment of textile sector.
Under the project, foreign experts will be hired to help the local garments industry learn how to enhance productivity and become more competitive in the international markets.
According to a spokesman for Technology Upgradation and Skill Development Company (TUSDEC) here on Tuesday, the company is presently engaged in formalising contracts with selected beneficiaries, as well as finalising experts for the project.
Some 12 top performers have been selected, out of 18 leading garment manufacturers/ exporters, who earlier submitted applications along with authentic export figures to become a beneficiary of the project. Several world-renowned companies have also submitted applications to provide consultancy services.
Textile is the most important sector of Pakistan’s economy, contributing about 8.5 per cent to the GDP. Garment manufacturing has been one of the major growing sub-sectors within the textile value chain, but is currently suffering from low productivity and poor quality.
The technical upgradation project, initiated by TUSDEC and SMEDA in July 2006, is aimed at providing comprehensive consultancy services and technical guidance on all aspects of garment manufacturing in order to meet the challenges of global market. Foreign experts will transfer technical and specialised skills to the employees of selected factories.
These factories will establish a benchmark practice for the garment industry and the impact of productivity improvement and skill upgradation will trickle down to the rest of the industry.
November 29th, 2006
Album of songs by Sri Lanka’s female garment workers to promote labour values
Monday, November 27, 2006, 13:50 GMT, ColomboPage News Desk, Sri Lanka.
Colombo Page, Sri Lanka
Nov 27, Colombo: Christian World Service of New Zealand has funded a Sri Lanka NGO working with the country’s garment workers, for a project of releasing a song album with the hope of uplifting the image of working women in Sri Lanka.
Garment manufacturing is Sri Lanka’s biggest export industry and over 80% of the garment workers are young girls.
“These girls are treated very badly by our society. They are called all kinds of derogatory names and harassed on the roads and preyed upon. But they are the people earning money for this country. We want to tell people not to treat them badly,†said Padmini Weerasuriya, the Coordinator of the Women’s Centre that produced the album.
The CD is named as ‘City of Tailors’ and comprises 12 songs dedicated to the women garment workers. Five of the songs have been composed and sung by female garment workers.
November 28th, 2006
After I design a garment, I hate it’
Times of India, India
One of India’s leading couture designers, Rajesh Pratap Singh was in town for a fashion jamboree.
After the last model sauntered back, the music faded, and the applause reverberated across the venue, designer Rajesh Pratap Singh, made a quick entry, peeped from behind the models, waved, and sped into the shadows. Rajesh explains, “It’s not I but my clothes that should be remembered.” The designer, known for his eccentric demeanour, adds emphatically, “I’ll do anything to promote fashion.”
Rajesh’s meticulous attention to design, pattern and painstaking stress on the quality of the product is what makes his clothes sought after. “India ranks poorly in terms of quality. It’s disappointing that we haven’t yet touched a vast resource of raw materials. The wool from Ladakh is better than that from- Mongolia, and Indian cotton is finer than the Egyptian variety. We need to invest in research, and employ advance technology and engineering. The country’s great talent pool needs to be respected,” he voices.
His profound perspective about fabric and fashion has helped him make an indelible mark in the domestic and international couture sector. “I love the medium (couture), and competition stimulates me,” says the designer who has represented the country at the Jakarta Fashion Festival, Hong Kong Fashion Week, Singapore Fashion Week and Dubai Couture Week. Rajesh also participated in fashion related road shows in New York, Paris and London. Other venues he’s showcased his collections at include Tel Aviv, Israel and Osaka, Japan, Cape Town. Rajesh also shares, that his creations are for “intelligent individuals who can carry off designs with panache and confidence.”
The designer’s signature style has won him many accolades. His achievements include national awards for best designer. “But, I genuinely feel I am not good enough. We haven’t seen enough here, and hence can’t pick the good from the bad,” he retorts in response to the recognition the country has bestowed on him.
Rajesh’s eccentric quest for perfection keeps him on his heels, round the clock. “I have to keep doing something every day. After I’ve designed a garment, I hate it. I haven’t yet made my master piece,” he says.
With perfection as his life’s motto, he explores newer avenues for design and style. Fashion, however, comes naturally to him. For instance, he shares, “On my flight to Hyderabad, I was browsing through a magazine when a piece on lac bangles, famous here, caught my attention. Immediately, I explored ten ideas around them. Hyderabad has great potential. There’s a lot a designer can do here.”
November 27th, 2006
Bangladesh garment industry fear slow down due to unrest
DailyIndia.com, FL
Dhaka, Nov 23 (IANS) Beset with prolonged political unrest that has disrupted their business, Bangladesh’s garment and knitwear exporters fear long-term adverse impact from increased competition from China, Pakistan and Vietnam.
Worse, the foreign buyers are ‘not sympathetic’ to their woes that are ‘man-made’ and not in the same category as a natural disaster like floods or cyclone that hits Bangladesh from time to time
Ranah George Abraham, the country sourcing manger of the Levi Strauss, a Hong Kong-based subsidiary of the global brands Levi’s and Dockers, told the New Age newspaper: ‘We are in problem with our scheduled productions and shipments disrupted by the political unrest here.’
‘Customers of Bangladeshi apparels will not be sympathetic to the local suppliers’ predicament in face of the political unrest, as this is a man-made crisis, not a natural disaster,’ said Abraham.
Leaders of Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Knitwear Manufacturers’ Associations have threatened to take to the streets that are already choking with agitating political parties over stalemate regarding the revamping of the Election Commission.
The interim government headed by President Iajuddin Ahmed, struggling for the past four weeks to overcome the political stalemate, has only given assurance to the industry with no action to calm their fears.
They claimed the industry is losing Taka two billion (about $29 million) a day due to the disruption in the production and export.
Readymade garment, the country’s largest industrial and export sector, which employs 2.2 million people and earned $8 billion in the last fiscal year, has been among the worst-effected by the blockade of the Awami League-led alliance, said industry leaders.
The work at ports has been suspended for the past weeks and the run up to elections has always been a volatile period.
Bangladesh’s biggest foreign exchange earner, the twin industry was badly hit earlier in the year by violent agitations by workers over unhealthy working conditions and poor wages.
An estimated 100 factories were destroyed, burnt down or damaged, causing losses worth Taka 400 million.
‘Uncertainty may compel some buyers to divert their future procurements from Bangladesh to elsewhere,’ warned Abraham.
She pointed to three looming threats to Bangladeshi exporters - revoking of the interim restriction on Chinese apparels’ access to the US and European Union markets by 2008, Vietnam’s entry to the World Trade Organisation last month, and sharpening competitiveness of Pakistani textiles manufacturers in recent times.
‘It is not so important how much loss we have suffered during the last few days turmoil but the real damaging factor will be its long-term impact,’ said A.K.M. Fazlul Hoque, president of the Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association.
Fazlul Hoque, who was in Germany last week, said: ‘Buyers in Germany (the number-one destination of Bangladesh-made knitwear) were anxiously asking whether the political unrests would continue into the coming months and they could rely to put orders for the coming seasons.’
Copyright Indo-Asian News Service
November 24th, 2006
VIETNAM: CP Ltd. organises fabric & garment accessories expo in Hanoi
BharatTextile.com (subscription), India
HANOI: The CP Exhibition / China Promotion Ltd. are organising the Vietnam Fabric & Garment Accessories Expo 2007 here from April 17 to 19 in 2007, press release stated.The release clarified that the event is related to garment machinery & parts; CAD/CAM Systems Cutting and Laying Embroidery; fusing and pressing Home; furnishing hosiery upholstery; knitwear; synthetics cotton; silk; wool interlinings; linings jute; ramie; leather; pvc man-made fiber; micro-fiber non-woven; nylon; polyester accessories & supplies; buttons & buckles; fasteners & zippers labeling system; padding needle & thread; dyes & chemicals quality control costing & management fashion accessories.
The event is going to be visited by importers, exporters and manufacturers from all sectors of the textile machinery industry, including spinning, non-woven, weaving, knitting, dyeing and finishing, garment making, testing, software as well as dyestuffs and chemicals & also general public.
The growth of garment export from Vietnam is expected to double or triple to US$7-8 billion in 2010, while currently, the country imports a total of US$2.19 billion worth of fabrics a year, mainly from China, Taiwan and Korea.
CP Exhibition / China Promotion Ltd has been a professional exhibitions organizer since 1980 and has successfully organised over 200 international exhibitions in China & Vietnam.
November 23rd, 2006
Keep garment sector above politics: BGMEA
By Staff Reporter
The New Nation, Bangladesh
Country’s garment factory owners on Tuesday urged the political parties to keep the RMG sector free from any kind of political programmes in their election manifesto.
President of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) SM Fazlul Huq demanded it at a press conference held at his office. Former President of the organisation Annisul Huq and Tipu Munshi, director Lutfur Rahman and Abdus Salam Murshedia were present, among others, on he occasion.
The BGMEA president said, “We cannot wait for a long when the politicians will save the democracy.”
He also announced an owner-workers sit-in programme in front of Bangabhaban from Thursday unless the ongoing political deadlock resolved within Wednesday.
Portraying the losses over the blockade programmes he said production of the sector has been totally stopped. Transportation export of finished goods and import of raw materials had stopped. Thus saving of the sector is now responsibility of the Caretaker government, he said.
Annisul Huq said, “We want to continue production…we do not want to be sacrificed for politics.”
© Copyright 2003 by The New Nation
November 22nd, 2006
Garment unit `discharging untreated effluent’
Hindu, India
K. Manikandan
Polluted water finding its way to Kadaperi water bodies
TAMBARAM : Residents of Kadaperi are furious with a garment unit of the Madras Export Processing Zone Special Economic Zone (MEPZ - SEZ), which they say has been discharging untreated effluent for the past two days.
Residents pointed out to the dark blue effluent flowing from the Zone on MES Road through storm water drains and said this had become an annual feature during the monsoon.
Officials of the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, Tambaram Municipality and those in MEPZ - SEZ said a detailed investigation would be conducted and appropriate steps would be taken.
Prakash Kumar, a resident of Kadaperi, said around 11 a.m. on Wednesday, a huge volume of the untreated effluents started gushing out of the storm water drains outside the compound wall of the MEPZ.
The effluent found its way into the Kadeperi lake and Kadeperi Tank after flowing through storm drains running adjacent to MES Road, Thomas Street and Kulakkarai Street. Residents tried to prevent the effluent from flowing out of the MEPZ premises by piling mud near the drains, but the flow was too strong.
L.R. Chezhian, All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam councillor of Ward No. 2 of Tambaram Municipality, said the problem originated from a garment export unit inside MEPZ. Along with officials belonging to the Sanitary Department of Tambaram Municipality, they conducted an inspection of facilities at the garment unit and noticed that the primary treatment plant did not function.
As a result, effluents entered storm water drains and drained into water bodies in Kadaperi. Senior officials at MEPZ said there was a Common Treatment Plant, but that was meant only for treatment of sewage from the units.
The recycled water from this Plant was used for gardening and other purposes. As far as effluent treatment was concerned, it was entirely the responsibility of the respective units to treat and dispose of the same.
The units should not discharge effluents into the open inside the MEPZ or through storm water drains, the officials said.
A representative of the garment unit acknowledged the problem and said that the treatment plant did not function as it was flooded due to the recent heavy rains.
However, they had taken measure to stop the problem from getting aggravated and were coordinating with government agencies to avert a recurrence of the problem.
November 21st, 2006
SRI LANKA: Govt. plans initiatives to integrate garment industry
BharatTextile.com (subscription), India
COLOMBO: The government is planning various initiatives to expand textile production at the defunct units and facilitate vertical integration of the garment industry, spokesman of the ministry of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotions said here on November 17.
The spokesman also informed that as part of the plan, the defunct Kabool lace facility in Pannala, in the north-western province is to be converted into textile manufacturing soon.
Earlier, two textile zones, one in Thulhiriya in the north-western province and the other in Horana in the western-province were initiated in 2006.
The textile facility at Thulhiriya is out of operation since late 2003 and was handed over to MAS Holdings to turn it to an industrial zone; whereas another memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed with Brandix Lanka recently to set up the textile facility in Horana.
November 20th, 2006
Gelar Diskon ’Aneka Textile’
www.kr.co.id
YOGYA (KR) - Sejak gempa bumi melanda Yogya, 27 Mei lalu, omzet penjualan tekstil turun hampir 50 persen. Menghadapi kenyataan tersebut, sejumlah outlet tekstil tak ingin terus-menerus terjebak dalam kelesuan. Seperti outlet Aneka Textile akan menggelar diskon hingga titik terendah, mulai Minggu (19/11). Masing-masing di Aneka Textile Jl Solo 24 Yogya, Jl Pemuda 47 Magelang, dan Jl Pemuda 47F Muntilan.
Menurut Chandru, pemilik Aneka Textile, diskon tersebut juga berlaku pada barang baru, karena program ini bukan cuci gudang. Diakui, saat ini persaingan antaroutlet juga semakin ketat, namun Aneka Textile tidak ingin terjebak oleh persaingan yang tidak sehat. “Dalam gelar diskon ini sebagian keuntungan akan kami sumbangkan kepada korban gempa. Sebelumnya, hal ini juga sudah kami lakukan, yakni seminggu setelah terjadi bencana gempa bumi, melalui bakti sosial ke pelbagai titik korban gempa,†jelas Chandru di Aneka Textile Jl; Solo 24 Yogya, kemarin. Chandru menambahkan, gelar diskon sengaja dilaksanakan serentak di tiga outlet Aneka Textile, yanga ada di Yogya, Magelang dan Muntilan. Dalam acara pembukaan juga akan dimeriahkan berbagai hiburan, di antaranya Tejo Badut. (Job)-c.
November 17th, 2006
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