The Textiles Committee, Ministry of Textiles, and Nissenken Quality Evaluation Centre, Japan, have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to ensure quality of textile and clothing exports to Japan as specified by Japanese buyers.
According to an official press release, the main objective of the MoU is to provide the required support to the textile trade and industry to meet the quality requirements of Japanese buyers through testing, inspection and conformity assessment, training, capacity building, research and development and consultancy. The MoU will strengthen the bilateral trade between India and Japan.
Union Minister for Textiles Smriti Irani highlighted at the virtual event on January 27 the challenges related to stringent quality standards for exports to Japan and expressed confidence that the MoU will help create awareness on the quality parameters sought by the importers based in Japan. It will offer hand-holding support to the Indian exporters to adopt and upgrade their technology and enhance the quality of products and satisfy the stipulations as required by the Japanese importers.
Both the institutions will share and exchange relevant technical information and documentation on a regular basis and carry out activities related to standards, quality assurance norms, joint research projects on testing, development of user friendly tools for dissemination of data to the industry and facilitate sourcing across the textile value chain in both the countries.
The signing ceremony was presided over by the Minister for Textiles on the Indian side and Yasumasa Nagasaka, State Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Government of Japan, from the Japanese side.
Mr. Nagasaka said India was a huge market for Japanese industry and expressed confidence that going forward, there would be substantial development in the India- Japan trade relationship.
Ajit B. Chavan, Secretary of Textiles Committee, told The Hindu that the agreement will give confidence to Japanese buyers about Indian suppliers. Japan imports $ 37 billion worth textile and clothing products totally and India’s share is “not as high as we want it to be.” There are a lot of private standards in Japan and these are mostly in Japanese. The MoU will make the standards available to the Indian suppliers in English. It will also help connect the suppliers here with the clients of Nissenken. Japan sources a large volume of apparels and made ups and Indian suppliers can make winter garments too for the Japanese market. The Committee has already opened a Japan Quality Desk at its office at NCR.
