C&A Foundation provides interest-free loans to smallholder and marginal cotton farmers in India to help them buy and install drip irrigation units. These efforts have resulted in higher earnings and an increased quality of life for thousands of cotton farmers. The affordability of drip irrigation for small landholders has resulted in a 31 per cent higher net income from cotton cultivation compared to non-drip farmers. Farmers previously dependent on rain-fed cotton to make a living have increased their gross earnings after joining the program. India is the world’s largest producer of cotton.

The program provides far more benefits beyond just an increase in income, with farmers seeing environmental and agronomic impacts thanks to drip irrigation. Water saving is also an achievement of this program as farmers involved in this initiative have reported using just 1,191 liters of water per kilogram of cotton compared to the 5,923 liters consumed by non-program farmers.

Uniformity in production, better yield of seed cotton and increased fertiliser cost efficiency as well as reduced weeding and lower labor costs are some of the other benefits of the program. C&A Foundation is the charitable arm of global fashion retailer C&A. The foundation has launched a global initiative aimed at helping brands, retailers and manufacturers find more innovative and sustainable ways of producing fashion.

Levi’s opened a 16,902-sq-ft, multi-level store at the “crossroads of the world”. The store replaces the previous Times Square Levi’s store, which occupied a corner space a couple of blocks north of the new locale. The flagship was designed for a seamless and highly personalised shopping experience. It houses mobile points-of-sale and associate-assisted ordering. Large dressing rooms are enhanced with convenient call buttons, comfortable seating and a bright atmosphere. And sustainable design elements can be found across the store, including hangers made from 100 per cent recycled jeans.

On the ground level, shoppers will find limited-edition New York City-centric pieces, including Levi’s Premium jeans with Statue of Liberty motifs and repeated ‘NYC’ patterns. The prints are achieved using the company’s new laser finishing process, F.L.X. Technology.

The ground floor also houses the Levi’s Tailor Shop. The shop offers consumers the most comprehensive customisation options to date with four on-site tailors and direct-to-garment (DTG) printing capabilities. Through iPads, consumers can access a broad scope of customisable options, including preloaded photos, images, logos and text designed by local New York artists. On-site tailors are also on hand to add patches, paneling, chain stitching and more to jeans, jackets, tees and totes.

Pakistan has no immediate plans to grant the Most Favored Nation (MFN) status to India. The country maintains a list of 1,209 items which are not permitted to be imported from India. As per a World Trade Organisation rule, every member of WTO is required to accord this status to other member countries.

India has already granted this status to all WTO members, including Pakistan. Under the MFN status, a WTO member country is obliged to treat other trading nations in a non-discriminatory manner, especially with regard to customs duty and other levies, but Pakistan is yet to transition fully to MFN status for India. Pakistan allows only 137 products to be exported from India through the Wagah border land route.

Bilateral trade between the two countries stood at $2.28 billion in 2016-17. India mainly exports cotton, dyes, chemicals, vegetables and iron and steel to Pakistan while it imports fruits, cement, leather, chemicals and spices. India-Pakistan relations have nosedived in recent years with no bilateral talks taking place. Ties between the two countries had been strained after terror attacks by Pakistan-based groups in 2016.

Pakistan is working out free trade agreements with different countries, especially China, and hopes to complete the second FTA with China by June 2019.

Garment workers in Myanmar are unlikely to benefit from recent increase in minimum wages. Reason: factories have upped production targets, meaning workers will have to work harder or longer hours. Taking into account inflation rates, increasing costs of living and cut production bonuses, workers may earn absolutely nothing more than before the minimum wage was introduced.

Several garment brands and retailers source products from Myanmar. They have been asked to take into account the revised minimum wage rate in their cost calculations, enabling suppliers to pay workers at least the new legal minimum wage.

Risks to growth emanate mainly from ongoing ethnic tensions. Uncertainties in the global environment related to trade and energy prices could continue to weigh in on investor sentiment. Exchange rate pressure and weather conditions that might lead to supply-side disruptions will continue to be key sources of inflation uncertainty.

Vulnerabilities associated with poor asset quality and thin capital buffer could increase further. With the advantages accruing from preferential trade agreements and low labor costs, Myanmar can utilize the time window to address the key constraints in improving both the environment for domestic manufacturing as well as the efficiency of trade logistics. Myanmar’s economy grew by 6.8 per cent in 2017-18, up 5.9 per cent from the previous year.

According to the Dhaka Stock Exchange (DSE), the earnings per share (EPS) of 30 out of 53 listed textile, knitting and garment companies in the first quarter of the current financial year (2018-19) increased due to higher export growth. As garment sector's exports soared during the quarter, profits of most of the companies' also increased revealed BGMEA. The Export Promotion Bureau also revealed that the garment shipments increased by 14.66 percent, according to data from the Export Promotion Bureau.

Export growth may continue in the coming months if the business environment remains favourable. However, DSE data shows some of the textile companies saw a decline in their EPS during the quarter, while some of them even fell into losses.

The price of cotton had soared in the international market but the yarn price did not rise in the local market. According to Business Insider, cotton price varied from 77 to 90 cents in the July-September quarter.

Korea expects to benefit from the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), if and when it comes about. The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership involves ten Asean members and six Asia-Pacific countries – Korea, Australia, China, India, Japan and New Zealand. Negotiations were launched in 2012 and the trade deal is expected to be finalized next year.

If concluded, the RCEP is expected to create the world’s largest free trade area, comprising 49 per cent of the world’s population and a combined gross domestic product of around 25 trillion dollars, which accounts for 32 per cent of global GDP.

South Korea stands to suffer from the trade war escalating between its two largest trade partners, the US and China. Proposed changes to China’s currency and taxation policies may harm Korean exporters. The prolonged trade conflict could cut Korea’s economic growth 0.6 per cent and cost 1,50,000 jobs.

In view of this Asia’s fourth largest economy sees the pact as an opportunity to diversify its export destinations. The pact is expected to create the right conditions for Korean companies to export their products and services to India, which still has low openness to Korea.

Though Korea and India signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement in 2009, the utilisation of the trade pact by Korean companies is 67.5 per cent, lower than Korea’s average utilisation rate for FTAs.

H One, an IT solutions provider, launched Res.Q| MI; an all-encompassing machine management solution designed with both large and small-scale factories in mind. Res.Q Machine Inventory is a revolutionary new asset management solution which leverages the capabilities of NFC (Near Field Communication) technology for the management, protection, and maintenance of one of the most vital assets of the apparel industry: its machinery.

Res.Q|MI is designed specifically to cater to such scenarios in any factory environment; facilitating the easy tracking of machinery -with just a click of a button- irrespective of where the machine is located at the time. Each machine is assigned a specific uniquely identifiable NFC tag which contains information, from the machine’s unique ID, its transaction history, break downs and service records.

The machine management solution includes smart notifications, rent-in and rent-out calculations, as well as complete visibility of available machinery, allowing for manufacturers to exhaust all available machinery before resorting to renting machinery. With Res.Q Machine Inventory, facilities will be automatically notified once a machine has completed its rental time period.

Res.Q Machine Inventory also aids the commerce of the apparel industry with machine maintenance; for manufacturers can now ensure that their machinery is functioning at its optimal performance and also monitors a detailed record of its maintenance and service history of every machine.

As per QNB’s weekly economic commentary China’s investment in Africa is rapidly outstripping the regional position of the US. Last year, Africa-China trade was over three times higher than US -Africa trade. Chinese direct investment (FDI) flows to Africa have surpassed those from the US for the first time in 2014.

From 2011 to 2016, outstanding Chinese FDI in Africa increased by 130 per cent to reach $53 bn, against flat levels from the US and UK. The largest recipients of Chinese FDI were, respectively, South Africa ($6.5bn), Congo ($3.5bn), Algeria ($2.5bn), Nigeria ($2.5bn), Zambia ($2.5bn) and Zimbabwe ($1.8bn).

The three factors that contribute to the spree of Chinese FDI in Africa include China’s resource-intensive growth coupled with Africa’s relatively untapped natural wealth; China’s ‘financial diplomacy’ or bilateral loans which are a major source of support for Chinese activities in Africa and cost-effectiveness of Africa for large Chinese manufacturers.

As per Export Promotion Bureau, Bangladesh’s exports to Chile rose by 33.32 per cent in FY 2017-18 as the South American nation granted duty-free market access to Bangladeshi goods. Total earnings from exports to Chile grew to $86.28 million, of which $78.93m were accountable to the readymade garments (RMG) sector. Export earnings to Chile in the first quarter of the current fiscal year increased by 50.45 per cent from the same period last year, to $41.44m.

Bangladesh has been enjoying duty-free and quota-free market access in Chile since January 2015. The move followed a February 2014 meeting in Dhaka of Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed with the Chilean ambassador, Cristian Barros. Before the privilege was introduced, imports from Bangladesh were subject to average tariffs of 17 per cent. This was reflected in the country’s export earnings in the fiscal year 2014-15, of only $36.93 million.

Japanese investors are showing keen interest in Bangladesh. The main reasons are low wages and low production costs. They also are pulling back their investments from China due to the high wages and production costs. Wages in the garment sector in China are four times higher than they are in Bangladesh. About 270 Japanese companies are operating in Bangladesh.

Since the garment sector is growing fast in Bangladesh, foreign investors choose the country as an investment destination in the textile sector. The available workforce at a reasonable wage, duty-free market access to major export destination, preferential location in the heart of the Asia-Pacific region and policy support have acted as a catalyst to attract foreign investment in the textile and apparel industry.

Bangladesh is seeking FDI from Singapore, India, Japan, China, Thailand and other countries. There has been a huge jump in FDI inflows. This can be attributed to the development of 100 economic zones in Bangladesh. Out of the export earnings from Japan in the last fiscal year, 74.8 per cent came from the readymade garment sector. And apparel exports to Japan have seen a 13.73 per cent rise. Meanwhile, Japan has shown a keen interest in hiring skilled labor from Bangladesh for its textile industry.