TN to get five Handloom Export Zones

Chennai, May 29 (UNI) Five new Handloom Export Zones (HEZs) will be set up in Tamil Nadu, with a total Central funding of Rs three crore to promote handloom exports, Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh announced today.

Talking to reporters after a review meeting on leather and handloom exports, he said the HEZs, the first of its kind in the country, would be set up in Nagercoil, Virudhunagar, Kancheepuram, Tiruvannamalai and Nagapattinam districts. The state government would provide land and other infrastructural facilities for the HEZs, to be set up by the Handloom Export Promotion Council.

Stating that Tamil Nadu had taken the lead in this regard, Mr Ramesh said the first HEZ would be commissioned by October in Nagercoil, where the main product focus would be terry towel. In Virudhunagar and Tiruvannamalai, the focus would be on place mats, value addition for handloom products in Kancheepuram and silk finishing in Nagapattinam.

''This is a very important initiative taken up by the Centre under the SGSY scheme,'' he said, adding that these HEZs would provide a new focus for export of handloom products and generate more jobs.

Mr Ramesh said two thirds of handloom exports constitute made-up products and the rest fabrics from three Handloom Export Centres in Karur (Tamil Nadu), Panipat (Haryana) and Kannur (Kerala). These centres would be able to provide a new push to handloom exports through the concept of HEZs.

Observing that there was no data since 2003 regarding the quantum of handloom exports, he said that by next year, there would be a separate code and classification for handloom exports to generate data and record the volumes.

''I had spoken to the Finance Minister and it should be in place by next year'', he added.

The Minister said the Government was also making a determined effort to focus more and more on marketing, by targetting big buyers like Swedish firm Ikea, which had imported 544 million dollars worth of handloom products from India under the brand name 'Indira'.

MORE UNI