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Four Uzbek nationals have filed a complaint against the World Bank's private sector arm, charging that a $40 million loan to an Uzbek textile company risked stoking the practice of forced labour in the central Asian country's cotton fields. The complaint filed with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) demands an investigation into forced labour related to Uzbekistan-based Indorama Kokand Textile.
According to human rights groups, Uzbekistan operates a massive, state-orchestrated forced labour system that underpins its position as the world's fifth-largest cotton exporter.
The U.S. government's annual report on human trafficking, published recently, said Uzbek government-compelled forced labour of adults remained endemic in the 2015 cotton harvest. The complaint to an IFC ombudsman made public the charges that the private lending group does not have adequate mitigation measures to ensure its investments and are not supporting forced labour.
According to its website, the IFC, which invests in developing the private sector in emerging economies, approved the loan of up to $40 million to Indorama Kokand Textile in December 2015.
The loan aims to finance the expansion of a cotton plant in the Uzbek city of Kokan, the website said, with a view of encouraging exports. Indorama Kokand Textile, a leading cotton producer in Uzbekistan, says on its website that more 90 per cent of its production is for export to Latin America, Europe, Bangladesh, former Soviet countries as well as Turkey.
The sun came out for Texprint’s London 2016 preview (July 6-7) at Chelsea College of Arts, reflecting the upbeat, optimistic collections on display.
Nearly 200 young names, all recently graduated from BA and MA textiles and textiles-related courses throughout the UK, were interviewed through June. From a 13-day marathon of interviews led by Texprint creative director Peter Ring-Lefevre, 24 names were chosen. Helen Howe, an American designer among those selected by Texprint, studied Knitted Textiles at London’s Royal College of Art.
Individual resilience and marketing acumen are talking points this year. In a fiercely competitive market, designers have to be able to explain and market their work effectively. Another talking point is the growing importance of digital skills. While hand drawn or painted expertise is rightly prized and valued, the modern textile designer needs to be digitally confident. Crimson Rose O’Shea, short-listed for the Texprint Pattern Award, evolved a two-step strategy in her own personal development.
From the final 24 designers, a panel of distinguished judges selects the Texprint award winners in four categories: Fashion, Interiors, Colour, and Pattern. The shortlist was announced on the same day, but the winners are not revealed until Première Vision in Paris on September 13 (the Texprint designers’ exhibit at Première Vision Designs, which is located within the main PV).
With the passing away of the peak demand period in China for fibers, prices of synthetic fibers used in apparel have started to dip in the Asian market.
Spot price of polyester filament which is used in shirts was $1.12 to $1.13 a kilogram at the end of June, 2-3% less than that in April. Polyester staple, which is used in futon filler, was priced at 81 cents per kilogram at the end of June down 10% in two months.
Prices of ethylene glycol and high-grade terephthalic acid have risen due to some plant stoppages since June. But with orders expected to remain weak until around September when demand related to spring and summer clothing lines typically picks up, prices are likely to remain sluggish.
In addition, psychological unease about a sluggish global economy in the wake of the U.K.'s decision to exit the European Union could further weaken prices.
The Clean Clothes Campaign and the International Labor Rights Forum are happy with the fact that a scheme set up by them to provide compensation to people affected by the Tazreen Fashions fire of 2012 has ended with the settlement of claims of survivors and also to the dependents of those who were killed in the fire.
The Tazreen Claims Administration Trust, which used a system for calculating and distributing awards based upon a similar initiative designed for those affected by the Rana Plaza building collapse, announced last Friday that the work to disburse claims, carry out medical assessments, calculate amounts owed to each beneficiary and distribute payments was complete.
It may be remembered that on 24 November, 2012 a fire ripped through the Tazreen Fashions garment factory in Bangladesh killing 113 workers and injuring nearly 200.
Three years later in September 2015, the Tazreen Claims Administration Trust was set up as a result of an agreement signed in 2014 by C&A, C&A Foundation, IndustriALL Global Union and the Clean Clothes Campaign. This agreement led to the establishment of the Tazreen Claims Administration Trust in October 2015.
In November 2015, $2.5 million was put into a fund set up to cover the cost of the awards by brands that sourced goods from Tazreen Fashions. The remainder of each award had already been provided through payments made in the immediate aftermath of the fire by the Bangladesh Prime Minister’s Fund.
C&A Foundation and Fung Foundation each contributed $1 million to the fund. Smaller funds were provided by Walmart (via BRAC USA), KiK and El Corte Ingles.
Amid rising labour costs there, the Japanese garment industry has more or less shifted production from China to Bangladesh and other Asian countries.
But even after last Friday's terrorist attack in Dhaka, Japanese clothing makers will continue to do business in Bangladesh as it remains important both in terms of sales and production. However, the Japanese would demand additional security, it is understood.
Fast Retailing, the operator of the Uniqlo casual wear chain, is one of the major Japanese companies that is conducting business in Bangladesh. The Japanese company established a joint venture with Grameen Bank's local unit to operate stores and set up a production office to supervise factories.
Fast Retailing has been boosting production in Bangladesh along with Sweden's Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) and Inditex, the Spanish owner of Zara. These so-called fast-fashion brands are supported by their Bangladesh operations.
Some Japanese companies that have client plants in Bangladesh, such as casual clothing retailer Adastria and men's clothing store Aoki, said that they will keep their policies unchanged.
A representative of Fiber maker Toray Industries that is also operating its joint venture plant there have said that his company was not considering scaling back operations immediately given its favorable environment for exporting to Western markets. He further added that Bangladesh is one of their important production bases.
Indian Texpreneurs Federation (ITF), an apex body for textile industry in the region, has made a few fundamental and transformational suggestions to the Centre to drive textile sector towards the USD 300 billion export target by 2024-25.
In a letter to Textile Minister Smriti Irani, congratulating her for taking over the ministry, ITF Secretary Prabhu Dhamodharan said that in the last two years, the ministry had created a good platform for growth by improving the efficiency in the system and has also designed few good policies to trigger growth in the sector.
He was of the view that the domestic textile industry was now equipped with capacities to export fabrics and can capture this huge market if the ministry and industry worked in tandem.
An immediate Preferential Trading Area (PTA) with the UK would help strengthen India's position, the ITF secretary said that apart from the traditional markets, tremendous effort was required to tap new markets like Russia.
Inspite of technological advancements, India was not able to figure out the exact crop size and exact estimates and stock levels of cotton, leading to heavy speculation, as witnessed in the last 60 days when there was a 35 per cent spurt in prices, he remarked.
The government should idealise a strong mechanism to analyse and announce the exact cotton crop and stock data once a month, he suggested.
Further, he said that the fashion world was moving towards Cotton-Man Made Fibre (MMF) blends and with high MMF prices, the Indian industry was lagging behind in the fastest growing segment and duty rationalisation of MMF fibres will trigger tremendous growth in this segment.
Prabhu also requested Irani to visit important textile clusters and have a direct connect with the regional industry Associations in order to understand the scope of growth of each major clusters and start collaboration towards growth.
The biggest US apparel-focused retailer, Gap Inc. posted June sales that topped analysts’ estimates, a sign the company’s long-promised turnaround could be taking hold.
A key benchmark, total same-store sales, rose 2 per cent in June, the San Francisco-based retailer said recently. Analysts had predicted a 3.6 per cent decline, according to estimates compiled by Retail Metrics. The company’s off-price Old Navy brand led the results, with comparable sales increasing 5 per cent last month, topping the 3.3 per cent drop analysts expected.
The June results could signal that the improvement Chief Executive Officer Art Peck predicted would arrive in the spring is beginning to materialize. Traffic was bolstered by the Memorial Day holiday, which fell in fiscal June, the company said.
Trends reversed for Old Navy, which had stumbled as comparable sales slipped in six of the past eight months. In May, the company said it was shutting Japanese Old Navy stores and refocusing on North America and China.
With a good beginning of the monsoon season, the domestic textile market is expected to grow by 7-8 per cent in FY17, the Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) has said.
“The onset of good monsoon and Government initiatives may help in growth of 7-8 per cent of domestic textile market, which was estimated at USD 60 billion in FY16,” Confederation of Indian Textile Industry (CITI) Chairman Naishadh Parikh has been quoted to have said.
Welcoming the new Textiles Minister Smriti Irani, Parikh was quoted as saying that the appointment of a dynamic, progressive and result-oriented cabinet minister like Irani has come at an opportune time.
The apex chamber of textiles in India hoped that the industry would achieve the ambitious goal of creating 5 crore jobs in the next few years.
China is certainly doing a lot in Cambodia, becoming the country’s largest aid donor and source of foreign investment. Between 1994 and 2013, Chinese investment in Cambodia was about US$10 billion, focused mainly on agriculture, mining, infrastructure projects, hydro-power dams and garment production. Since 1992, China has also provided around US$3 billion in concessional loans and grants to Cambodia. This gesture has garnered appreciation from Cambodia’s government.
Excessive dependence on China has also placed Cambodian foreign policy firmly under China’s influence. During a meeting between Chinese and ASEAN ministers over the South China Sea in June 2016, Cambodia joined two other ASEAN nations in refusing to endorse a joint statement criticising China for its construction of military installations in contentious areas in the South China Sea.
Because of China’s influence, Cambodia is reluctant to strongly criticise or protest environmental issues resulting from Chinese policies. Chinese dam building on the upper Mekong River is being tolerated despite potential environmental devastation affecting millions of Cambodians who depend on this water for drinking, irrigation, fishing and sediments that naturally fertilise the land — in short for their food, water, sanitation and, in many instances, their income.
However, the key strategic interest for Cambodia is that its engagement with donors can both deliver infrastructure and the protect human rights and the rule of law. Both Western and Chinese approaches have their benefits. Cambodia’s task is to balance the benefits and obligations of both.
A study by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) suggests that it is the lower-end jobs in the textile and garment industry that are facing the risk of getting replaced by robots or automation. The research, based on two ASEAN-wide surveys of more than 4,000 enterprises and 2,700 students, and qualitative interviews with more than 330 stakeholders in ASEAN and beyond, examines how technology has an impact on workplaces.
According to the study, the robot age is already a reality among ASEAN manufacturers, who have been incrementally introducing robotic automation to improve productivity, quality, consistency, and workplace safety.
However, talking about labour-intensive sectors such as textiles, clothing and footwear, which provide more than nine million jobs in the ASEAN region, the report says, here, skilled jobs are particularly vulnerable to disruptive technologies, like additive manufacturing and automation. This could reduce export growth, as destination markets in Europe and the United States bring production back home. The subsequent social consequences could be particularly significant for some ASEAN economies, such as Cambodia and Vietnam.
As far as India is concerned, when the second wave of automation in the textile and apparel industry halves the use of human capital, those industries will shift their base back to developed nations. This would be a bad situation for India, as for the next two decades, every year, 10 million people are expected to join India's workforce.
