Discussion on Strengthening Competitiveness of the Textile Industry... Korea Federation of SMEs Holds Textile Industry Committee Meeting

Researcher Park Yoon-chul "Strengthening Production Systems by Stream"
Proposes 'Expanding Use of Domestic Product Preference System' and More

The Korea Federation of Small and Medium Business held the '2nd Textile Industry Committee Meeting of 2024' on the morning of the 8th at the Human-Centered Production Technology Research Institute of the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province.

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The Textile Industry Committee was established to devise response measures for strengthening industrial competitiveness and growth for small and medium-sized enterprises related to the textile industry, such as fashion collars, fabrics, and knits. The committee meeting was attended by about 15 representatives of small and medium textile companies, including Chairman Gu Hong-rim, Chairman of the Banwol Fashion Collar Business Cooperative, Han Sang-woong, President of the Korea Fashion Collar Industry Association, Kim Kwon-gi, Chairman of the Korea Bag Industry Cooperative, and Lee Seok-ki, Chairman of the Daegu-Gyeongbuk Textile Fabric Industry Cooperative.

Park Yoon-chul, senior researcher at the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology, who gave the keynote presentation, emphasized, “To strengthen the competitiveness of the textile industry, it is essential to firmly establish and cooperate within the production systems by stream, and protection and fostering of the midstream sector is necessary.” Along with this, based on an analysis of overseas cases, he presented strategies to expand the use of domestic textile materials by dividing them into procurement and private sectors.

First, he explained the necessity of expanding the use of domestic textiles in the public procurement market and introduced the case of the United States. Senior Researcher Park said, “The U.S. protects its industry and promotes combat power enhancement through a priority purchasing system for domestic products in military and procurement sectors. In contrast, Korea’s domestic production ratio of defense textiles is very low at around 7%, so the list of mandatory domestically produced items should be expanded beyond combat uniforms.”

As specific implementation measures, he proposed ‘detailed segmentation of the domestic textile product certification system,’ ‘legalization of the use of domestic textile materials for defense supplies through revision of the Defense Acquisition Program Act,’ ‘expansion of the direct production verification system to include knitting and dyeing processing industries,’ and ‘expansion of the preferential system for domestic products.’

In the private sector, he explained the importance of cooperation between large and small and medium enterprises across textile streams based on the successful cases of Japan’s Toray and Uniqlo. Toray, a major chemical fiber company, was able to achieve results by establishing a complementary collaboration system with Uniqlo, developing hit products such as Heattech and AIRism.

Chairman Gu said, “The textile industry is facing difficult business conditions due to a decrease in textile exports caused by prolonged wars in the Middle East and Europe, rising costs due to increased logistics and electricity fees, and strengthened environmental regulations.” He added, “For small and medium textile companies struggling with declining domestic and international demand, policy support must back the establishment of a win-win cooperation system, including revising the Defense Acquisition Program Act to expand the use of domestic textile materials and joint technology and product development between major fashion companies and small and medium textile companies.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.