Polyester fibre is contamination free and priced at 35-37 cents per pound while cotton is 67 cents per pound. To get competitive, cotton needs to score on three points. One is to improve cotton fibre attributes to bring parity with the attributes of polyester fibre. Second is to reduce the cost of cotton production by increasing productivity of cotton and lowering the cost of imputs like pesticides, seeds, fertilisers etc. Third is to reduce contamination. The world over cotton is suffering from the stagnation in technology for improving cotton productivity and the ICAC meet stressed the need to bring about technological improvement in cotton.

The agenda for ICAC meeting included cotton supply demand and trade development; arresting the decline in the market share of cotton; transfer of technology; investmentprospects in Latin America; non-tariff trade barriers against genetically modified organisms; cotton contamination.Among the country papers that were read, one on India was presented by the textile secretary Shyamal Ghosh. Suresh Kotak, president of East India Cotton Association (EICA) presented a paper on what India is doing to reduce cotton contamination. MB Lal, chairman of Cotton Corporation of India (CCI) spoke on experiences in transferring technology. The delegates from Israel, Columbia, UK and France also spoke on same subject and gave suggestions.

At yet another important global meeting viz the International Textile Manufacturers Federation's annual meeting held recently in Melbourn, the changing face of Asia - the implication for global textiles was the main theme.

One of the most outstanding papers was by Urs Werner Schoettli, correspondent in an economic journal in HongKong who observed that as much as the world went overboard with the Asian miracle, it is now too excessive in its pessimismabout Asia.

Urs suggested mobilisation of the traditional values is indeed very important palliative for the social disruption that the crisis has caused. On its own it is not sufficient to relaunch the solid economic growth in Asia which needs a strong dose of Keynes, says Urs. With its potential, with its huge market, with its resources, Asia remains in economic terms the most important part of the world. It is only matter of time until this engine of global growth will again roar at full speed observed Urs. Akio Mera, president of Itochu Textile Institute Inc spoke about a tripolar world comprising NAFTA, EU and Asia and how it affects the textile sector. John Anderson of Cotlook spoke on cotton situation, David Heart of PCI-fibre spoke on fibre position. Among country papers, One on India was read by Dinker Alva, MD, Bombay Dyeing.

Herwig M Strolz observed in his paper Textile investment and activity that world yarn stock has fallen and destocking is the way out of the current crisis. He warnedagainst overproduction. Strolz said that in 1996 India was a dominant investor in textile sector with a share of 53 per cent in machinery shipments.

India will therefore be the decisive factor for the future investment volume and capacity in ring spinning globally. Continuing the depressed market for its yarn abroad and at home, where sales have gone down by 30 per cent this year, the ring spinning investment in India can take another dive this year having fallen by 34 per cent in 97.