India's Gujarat state to set up 2 mega textile parks

The Gujarat government will set up two mega textile parks to enable forward and backward integration in the sector, it announced while the state budget was presented yesterday. The parks will be set up as part of the union budget announcement of setting up seven such parks. The move is expected go a long way in making the industry globally competitive.

“Mega Investment Textile Parks will make the industry more competitive at a global level and this will not just boost exports but at the back-end, it will also help generate more employment. At the same time, a single cluster will definitely help bring in more investments in the textile sector,” Chintan Thaker, co-chair, ASSOCHAM Gujarat state council, told a top English-language daily.

“This will give an impetus to MSMEs in the textile sector, which is the highest employment generator after agriculture. It will help ancillary units in textiles in a big way. Moreover, the plug-and-play model for the park will aid employment generation and also give an ecosystem to exporters and domestic manufacturers,” he said.

Industry stakeholders also said that the state government’s announcement on the ₹1,500 crore outlay for providing subsidy to the industries under the textile policy will also go a long way in boosting competitiveness of the domestic manufacturers.
Vijay Purohit, president, Gujarat Garment Manufacturers’ Association (GGMA), said, “A cluster approach not just brings in investments but instead it also helps build an entire textile value chain, which is currently very segregated in different geographical locations. This will help the industry grow, scale-up and innovate while being more competitive.”