Business

GOTS Stays Committed To South Asia, Plans Virtual Events

South Asia, the hub of textile and apparel manufacturing in the world, is the largest market for GOTS. In 2019, GOTS witnessed the highest growth ever, with a 35% increase from 5,760 to 7,765 facilities located in 70 countries. And the highest increases came from South Asia - Bangladesh (+505), followed by India (+438). From South Asia, India (2411), Bangladesh (1194) and Pakistan (276) were among the top 10 countries, while Sri Lanka had 62 facilities. India has held on to the top position since 2008. So, in these challenging times, how will GOTS continue to service this important region? “We are committed to support textile and chemical industry worldwide, including South Asia. We are in touch with industry and important stakeholders in the region and our client base is growing consistently. We are also in the process of appointing a regional representative who shall cover India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Our new GOTS colleague shall be frequently travelling in the region and work in close cooperation with the whole supply chain, from ginning to brands and buying agents,” informs Mr Sumit Gupta, Deputy Director, Standards Development & Quality Assurance, GOTS. Virtual events is the way forward GOTS India Seminar 2020 had to be postponed due to the pandemic situation, and is now slated to take place later this year. “We will go about our events, only virtually now. So, the GOTS India Seminar 2020 will be a virtual event in November or December,” said Sumit Gupta. Since May 2015, GOTS has organised five big events in India and Bangladesh which were attended by the who’s who of the textile industry. The GOTS India Seminar 2020 was planned as a gala event to be attended by the top players of the organic textile industry. “Now since this will be a virtual event, many more participants from other countries in South Asia will be able to join in easily. Of course, participation remains open to global audience. We shall also have regional events in other parts of the world where GOTS has regional representatives. Updates will be shared via GOTS newsletter too,” said Gupta. GOTS goes virtual with training sessions too GOTS has been organising training webinars for almost a decade now. “We are well experienced in this domain. My last training webinar on GOTS Version 6.0 is available on Facebook and has 5,400 views so far. Virtual events need to be shorter in duration since attendees will have to simultaneously tend to office and home responsibilities. A test call with all speakers and ability to mute all attendees is necessary to conduct the event in a professional manner,” he said.