The following is a round-up of apparel and footwear news from the world’s local media.

  • Indonesia’s upstream textile industry is calling on the Fiscal Policy Office to exempt local raw materials – supplied by local manufacturers – from VAT. If successful, the move is expected to boost demand for local raw materials with suggestions that domestic consumption of local raw materials could replace 100,000 tonnes of imports, saving up to US$500m in foreign exchange, boost activity at local factories and generate more employment. INDONESIA INVESTMENTS

  • Poland-based global trading and production company Polcotton is to invest about US$60m in the construction of a textile complex in Uzbekistan to process cotton. The facility, which will have a capacity of 10,000 tonnes of finished product per year, will create 1,200 jobs. TREND NEWS AGENCY

  • Iran has taken measures aimed at renewing the country’s garment manufacturing industry, in a bid to enter the international markets. “Exporting apparel products to the neighbouring countries, including the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States] and, in particular, Azerbaijan, is on the agenda,” the head of Tehran’s Apparel Manufacturers and Retailers Union, Abolqasem Shirazi, has said. He added that capabilities of the Iranian manufacturers for producing clothing items have doubled over the past year. AZER NEWS

  • The Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PRGMEA) is considering setting up a ‘Pakistan Apparels Export Council’ to facilitate business in the sector, its central chairman Ijaz A Khokhar has said. The move is part of the association’s efforts to boost garment exports with a target to raise it to $8 billion by 2020. THE NEWS (PAKISTAN)

  • In yet another bid to shore up the garment worker vote ahead of next year’s general election, Prime Minister Hun Sen has promised to lower their water prices and offered more details about a pending pension plan. The premier said the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority would cut the rate it charges landlords renting rooms to garment workers in the city. CAMBODIA DAILY

just-style has not checked these stories so cannot guarantee their accuracy.