A select group of Italian textile machinery manufacturers led an institutional and trade mission in late April in Thailand, organised by the Italian Trade Agency and by ACIMIT, the Association of Italian Textile Industry Manufacturers. The mission’s programme included meeting with various local trade association representatives and industry training centres, as well as visits to textile companies and the Country’s universities with a textile vocation.
ACIMIT President Alessandro Zucchi explains the reasons of the mission: “We had a dual goal: to get to know the local textile manufacturing sector’s level of technology and its current needs, and to assess possible forms of collaboration and partnerships between Italy’s textile machinery industry and entities within the Country providing specific textile training.†Zucchi adds that “In Thailand, the textile sector is undergoing a deep rooted transformation. There’s a demand for machinery that can cut back not just on production costs, but also on the environmental impact of textile manufacturing.â€Â
Indeed, the demand for machinery by Thai textile manufacturers is moving towards technologies capable of reducing production costs and increasing production capacity. In 2018, the value of Italian exports to Thailand amounted to 8 million euros.
“I believe the outcome of this mission was on the whole very positive,†concludes ACIMIT’s president. “We allowed local entrepreneurs to become aware of the latest Italian technology in the sector, while at the same time laying the foundations for a more rewarding partnership with local authorities.†The visits to the Thailand Textile Institute proved especially interesting, a government body that manages planning, development and support for the textile industry, as well as at the Faculty of Industrial Textiles and Fashion Design of Rajamangala University of Technology in Bangkok.
Six ACIMIT member companies participated in the mission: Brazzoli, Ferraro, Laip, Ms Printing Solutions, Sicam and Stalam.