Archive
International News Services archives articles supplied to clients one year or more after initial publication. These articles are protected by a password and not made available to readers without permission from clients. They are used as a background resource by agency journalists. Upon client requests, International News Services will remove such articles from the archive or not upload them in the first place. They are included to demonstrate the breadth of topics undertaken by the agency and also to help promote clients’ coverage.
MAURITIUS AND MADAGASCAR STEP UP CLOTHING AND TEXTILE MANUFACTURING COOPERATION
THE GOVERNMENTS of Mauritius and Madagascar are intensifying their efforts to improve cooperation between the respective textile and clothing sectors of these Indian Ocean island states.
Mauritius officials stressed to just-style how nine major Mauritian textile and clothing enterprises have set up production units in Madagascar, helping boost the economy of this relatively less developed country.…
US CLOTHING BRANDS MULLING SWITCH TO VIETNAM SOURCING OVER TRADE WAR BEWARE, SAY EXPERTS – THIS IS NOT CHINA
Clothing brands from the USA who are switching purchasing to Vietnam from China because of the trade war need to smarten up – and understand how business with Vietnamese trading partners differs from working with their old Chinese suppliers. “The main issue is that many US buyers expect to do business in Vietnam the way they have been doing in China, but the business culture is very different and many find it impossible to work in Vietnam because they do not understand or accept the differences,” said Frank Vossen, who runs Seditex, a Ho Chi Minh City-based based sourcing consultancy, focused on quality control. …
JAPAN’S ITOCHU SIGNS MEMORANDUM TO DEVELOP ETHIOPIA’S TEXTILE AND GARMENT SECTOR
Japanese firm ITOCHU has signed a Memorandum of Understanding to develop Ethiopia’s textile and garment sectors, an Ethiopian official said on September 13.
Communications Affairs Director at the Ethiopia Textile Industry Development Institute (TIDI), Gessesse Bantiyihun, said the agreement signed in August 2019 would help dozens of textile and garment factories boost their productivity and improve textile quality.…
JORDANIANS MULL HOW TO INCREASE LOCAL DESIGN CONTENT IN CLOTHING MANUFACTURING SECTOR
Jordanian garment manufacturers and supporting institutions like the International Labour Organization’s Better Work Jordan, plan to introduce garment design training to add value to a sector that is primarily ‘cut and sew’.
Jordan exported USD1.8 billion’s worth of garments last year, just over half to the USA, at USD1.02 billion, but designs are primarily provided by buyers and retailers, with minimal design in-country.…
INDIAN CLOTHING COMPANIES FACE UP TO NEW MANDATORY RULES ON CSR
India’s new mandatory requirements for corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes is forcing country’s garment exporters to refocus on their community development schemes and make special provisions to record all the spending.
A Companies (Amendment) Act 2019, adopted by the Indian parliament in July, mandates three-year imprisonment for the officers of the company found to be defaulting on CSR regulations.…
JAPAN’S ITOCHU CORP CONFIRMS LONG-TERM SUPPORT FOR ETHIOPIA TEXTILE SECTOR
Japan’s Itochu Corporation has signed an agreement with the Ethiopian Textile Industry Development Institute and the Ethiopian Investment Commission to further develop the Horn of Africa nation’s growing textile industry.
The Tokyo-based company declined to comment on the scale of the financial investment in the project but did confirm that it is part of the firm’s global expansion plans. …
TEXTILE COMPOSITES AND THEIR MANUFACTURE GETTING SMARTER AND SMARTER, SAY EXPERTS
From the creation of nanotube coatings to the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in modelling to reduce production flaws, saving costs, textile composite manufacture is becoming smarter “on a near daily basis, according to researchers.
Uday Vaidya, chief technology officer at the Tennessee, USA-based Institute for Advanced Composites Manufacturing Innovation (IACMI), told Future Textiles described how thermography applies heat using maps to fabrics; when they cool, systems reveal the difference in effects and defects “which saves a lot of time”.…
UK FAILING ON DOMESTIC BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION
The UK is failing when it comes to tackling domestic bribery and corruption, according to a July 2 report from the Fraud Advisory Panel, a British non-governmental organisation helping raise awareness about the damage caused by fraud. The panel said that the government and law enforcement has given insufficient priority to fighting UK-based fraud: “The heavy emphasis placed on overseas corruption in recent years has taken our eye off the ball at home.…
GOOGLE FINED EUR945 MILLION FOR FRENCH TAX FRAUD BY SARA LEWIS
A FRENCH court has fined Google almost EUR1 billion in a tax fraud case that set a legal precedent for other tech giants operating in France. The EUR945 million (USD1 billion) settlement over tax fraud allegations, brings to a close investigations that French authorities started in 2015.…
NEW FINTECH SERVICES DEVELOP FAST ANTI-FRAUD CHECKS THAT DELIVER SECURITY AND SWIFT CUSTOMER SERVICE
A harmonisation of regulatory frameworks and increased sharing of data between financial institutions may help overcome the “metronomic tension” within financial businesses balancing effective fraud detection and low user friction, say experts. With more challenger banks delivering services, real-time checks based on artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics may ensure the speed customers expect in digital transactions does not compromise security, including during onboarding.…