India today vowed to step up its collaboration with Egypt in the textiles sector and said talks were on to increase textile machinery supplies to the Arab country. India's Ambassador to Egypt Sanjay Bhattacharyya, while addressing a press conference ahead of the Cairo Fashion and Tex Exhibition that opens tomorrow, said India and Egypt have have a long tradition of exchanges in the textiles sector. "India astands ready to work with Egypt towards attainment of its new textile policy goals in production as well as in trade and investments," he said. Thirty-seven Indian textile companies are participating in the exhibition that run till September 16 at the Cairo International Convention Centre. The Indian firms are part of a delegation from the Synthetic and Rayon Textiles Export Promotion Council (SRTEPC), an apex body of manufacturers/exporter of man-made fibre textiles, in coordination with Federation of Indian Export Organization (FIEO) and the Indian Embassy here. The companies will showcase a very wide range of products, including yarns and fabrics. Bhattacharyya said that India is very well known in the market of man-made fibers and it has a very wide presence globally as India's textile industry is the second in the world. The Indian fabrics have a range of products with both expensive products as well as products with reasonable prices, he said. The other specially of the Indian textile industry is that it manufactures a lot of textile machinery, the envoy said. The Indian side is currently in discussions with the Egyptian side to expand the presence of textile machinery supplies from India to Egypt, he said. "Indian textile machinery are not only very good in terms of quality but also because India and Egypt has similar large populations and large labour force. So this kind of machinery will be very good for the Egyptian market," he added. The exhibition will also host an ‘India Pavilion'. "We will be showcasing different varieties of fabrics, made-up items which are ready to wear, yarn and fibre. So, it is an excellent opportunity for the Egyptian buyers and traders to visit this exhibition to see all the participant Indian companies under one roof as it will be also an opportunity for discussing business," Srijib Roy, director of SRTEPC, said. Roy said that Indian companies come to Egypt not to compete with the local industry but to cooperate with their Egyptian counterparts. The participation of Indian companies in the Cairo Fashion and Tex is aimed at forging a win-win partnership between the Indian and Egyptian companies, officials said. The objective is to strengthen the trade between the two countries, particularly in the fast-growing area of Man-Made Fibre (MMF) textiles, they said. India exported around USD 240 million worth of textiles and clothing products to Egypt during 2016. Man-made fibre textiles were one of the important products in the export basket, which is valued at USD 97 million, along with cotton (USD 131 million), apparel (USD 2.32 million), Jute (USD 4.4 million) and carpet (USD 0.36 million). The main items of Indian MMF Textiles that are exported to Egypt include polyester viscose fabrics, polyester blended fabrics, synthetic filament fabrics, shawls/scarves, laces, viscose spun yarn, polyester spun yarn, texturised yarn, and polyester staple fibre. Egypt has traditionally been one of India's most important trading partners in that region. During the year 2016-17, bilateral trade between India and Egypt was about USD 3.23 billion. India is Egypt's 10th largest export destination and also the 10th largest import source. Source: PTI
