Centre to boost technical textiles sector

New Delhi: The Government plans to focus on the emerging opportunity in technical textiles, owing to its export potential.

'India has the capability to take advantage of the developments in the field of technical textiles.

'With a large textile manufacturing base and technical manpower, India has the potential to become the leading exporter of various technical textile products,' the Minister of State for Textiles, Mr E.V.K.S Elangovan, said while inaugurating the two-day Technical Textile Summit here on Thursday.

He said that the Centre has been working to encouraging growth in this industry and had set up an Expert Committee on Technical Textiles.

The committee has drawn up a roadmap on various issues to suggest measures for implementation in a time bound manner, he added.

'With greater investments, focused research and development efforts, and creation of state-of-the-art common testing facilities we can emerge as a leading technical textile manufacturer and exporter,' he said.

The global market for technical textile products, which include medical non-wovens and textile items used for industrial applications, stood at $107 billion in 2005 and expected to grow to $127 billion by 2010 at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.3 per cent.

The domestic market for technical textiles in 2005 was estimated at $6.7 billion and expected to grow to $12.4 billion by 2010 at a CAGR of 11.25 per cent.