A 10-member delegation from Taiwan belonging to Taiwan Textile Federation (TTF) has come to Tamil Nadu and is on a two-day visit to Coimbatore on the invitation of CII - Tamil Nadu's Textile Panel to have a first-hand experience of the strengths of the textile sector here.

TTF is a 50-year old body and it represents more than 4000 textile industries in the East Asian country. The delegation is led by the President of TTF, Justin Huang.

"They have come here to know about our textile ecosystem and to see whether our entrepreneurs would be interested in forming a joint venture, " Vel Krishna, Co-Convener, Textile Panel, CII- Tamil Nadu said on Wednesday during a press conference.

It was understood that unlike USA, Taiwan has not taken an aggressive pace but it is gradually moving its business, especially textile-business, away from China and it has began associating with Vietnam, Cambodia and Indonesia for textiles-related business. It is now exploring opportunities in India. 

Gopikumar, Convener, Textile Panel of CII- Tamil Nadu shared that a delegation from India including representatives of textile sector from Coimbatore, Karur, Tirupur, Erode and Salem went to Taiwan in October, 2023 to study the strengths of Taiwan in Textiles, and also to hold B2B meetings and take part in their premium textile fair.

The delegation learned how strong is Taiwan in manufacturing synthetic garments and sportswear. They also learned about their strengths in textile researches; for instance Taiwan Textile Research Institute (TTRI) holds 900 patents. Hence, while concluding their visit to Taiwan, the Indian delegation requested Taiwan's TTF to come and experience the textile ecosystem and infrastructure here and see how they both can collaborate.

"We are also working to form an alliance between SITRA and TTRI so that we can collaborate in research areas and also facilitate technology transfer," Gopikumar shared.

The Taiwanese delegation will have a discussion with 40 of Tamil Nadu's textile business owners tonight, and they will also visit Textile sector players and stakeholders in Coimbatore tomorrow, and eventually will hold a meeting with TN Government officials and ministers.