The UAE government should be credited for pushing the industry hard so that they established themselves well and secure a good name overseas. The 28th part of a series describing the unknown triumphs and travails of doing international business
 

Some six weeks or so after the surprise visit of the American Textile Delegation, we were all subject to various rumours in the market. For one thing, the closed-door discussions in the Free Zone as well as various chambers of commerce and industry in all the Emirates continued.

In fact, the first major move was made by the Dubai Chamber. Our director general Abdul Rehman had called for a brief talk over the phone, after which I alerted all the JAGTA members to attend. A lot of manufacturers outside the JAGTA were also associated with it, because they had registered for getting regular reports from our lobbyist in Washington DC, which JAGTA had arranged. Their reports were regularly transmitted by fax to all registered manufacturers in the country and this service was done from Finetex office, as I was operating from here. The Dubai Chamber meeting, attended by manufacturers from every Emirate was the first major get-together of its kind, where they were assured that the government was fully aware of the growth of the industry, and every possible support will be given to strengthen the same.

All the chambers of commerce, ministry for industry and the Free Zone had a fairly good idea of the machinery capacity of all the plants in operation. They also had the full human resources data of the number of visas issued to each of the plant. Additionally, they had compiled the statistical data of the type of finished garments that was being exported out of the country. Because of the meticulous record kept in the Free Zone, they had a good idea about the quantum of import of fabrics and accessories; besides, when their inspectors regularly visited various plants, they had acquired a good knowledge of plant capacities. Records were kept of every fabric received in-house, in the Free Zone, and when this was transported to another plant in the country for conversion. This was done to arrive accurately an estimated production capacity of the each plant and the type of garments they would be able to make, visa-a-vis what they were actually shipping.

This was a formidable task but the staff of the zone and the ministry was fully up to the mark and kept pace with the developments. So, when the overall quota was received by the UAE, we did not know how this was divided among the Emirates or by the established production capacity of the plants, in the manner described above. The distribution was fair and equitable.

For example, both Palmon and Atraco were fully-equipped and organized to make all kinds of shirts; so, if they had the need, they would be able to switch over to make basic ladies blouses, though, they would rather make shirts, which they knew best. Wellworth, made a lot of children’s garments, though, they did make other products also. Finetex made both shirts and blouses, though a large capacity was assigned for the production of jackets, trousers and shorts.  They made different kinds of T-shirts too. Singleton specialized in shirts too.

Yet, when the notification came, all of us had a fair distribution in terms of quota allocation, based on what we had produced and exported in the past two years and our own installed machinery capacity. Naturally, the tendency was to ‘buy’ the quota from another manufacturer of the items one was interested in and ‘sell’ what they preferred not to make. If Palmon or Atraco sold their shorts quota, it was done in such a fashion to acquire their shirts quota, and so on. At the end of the day, I do not think anyone was upset about the quota distribution made by the government. Many swapped their quotas.

On the top of it, we later on discovered that we were able to approach the ministry for special or additional allocations, if we had exhausted our allocated quota and had to complete our orders. Also, as the ministry was keeping a very close watch on the quota situation; they were also effectively following up with manufacturers to consume the quota. They knew full well that at least a lead time of four months was required, if one had to secure an order, place the fabric requirements, acquire the accessories and manufacture for the shipment.

In every way, I would credit the government authorities for pushing the industry hard so that they established themselves well and secure a good name overseas.

As we were struggling with this situation, we had the surprise visit from the Canadian government, who too wanted to verify the existence of the textile industry in the UAE, and establish a similar quota procedure for their country.

Having gained the confidence of our well established relations with the US market, we were able to convince the Canadian team as well that the industry has come to stay and are in fact helping to employ a large number of people from the Asian countries, classified as LDCs.

Enterprising manufacturers, meanwhile, had made some headway in establishing beach-heads in UK, France and Germany; it was not practical to break into the East European Block, but a beginning was also made in Australia.

All the manufacturers in the Free Zone, who were procuring overseas orders directly for a variety of garments, were left over with excess production in varying numbers from each order. I think, it was around this juncture, when the UAE Industrial Exhibition was organized in Dubai. I think it was inaugurated by the then defence minister, HRH Sheikh Mohammed (who is the ruler of Dubai now), and was well received. All the manufacturers were permitted to offer their excess production to the local market and this was an unexpected bonanza for the industry.

It must be remembered that such a large working population for this industry alone was making a sizeable contribution to the UAE economy and the government gave full support in every way possible.

(AK Ramdas has worked with the Engineering Export Promotion Council of the ministry of commerce and was associated with various committees of the Council. His international career took him to places like Beirut, Kuwait and Dubai at a time when these were small trading outposts. From being the advisor to exporters, he took over the mantle of a trader, travelled far and wide, and switched over to setting up garment factories and then worked in the US. He can be contacted at [email protected].)