Textile Institute sewing new opportunities

The institute, under the Industry Ministry, promotes the development of textiles and garments and helps business operators enhance their competitiveness.
Executive director Chanchai Sirikasemlert said the industry has to focus more on high value textiles or material that can serve high growth industries, such as textiles for medical use, smart vehicles, military use, and bio-textiles.
Chanchai said the industry should produce more textiles for use in hospital operation rooms, such as sheets for beds in operation rooms or gowns for surgeons. There is high demand for these products in hospitals, he added.
He also said textile companies can easily produce the material and fabric for medical use but they may have no idea of the specific qualities or properties of the textiles hospitals need. The institute will therefore step in to seek information from medical staff.
Upgrading textile quality to meet top medical standards will also help the country serve an ageing society by producing clothes for the aged or debt-ridden patients.
The institute recently arranged business meetings between textile suppliers and hospitals, so the former can produce products that serve the specific needs of the latter.
Chanchai said textiles for next-generation cars are another big market.
The institute will also seek collaboration with textile machinery manufacturers to help textile producers upgrade their capacity to produce material and fabric from farm products such as pineapple peels, banana peels and coconut coir to lower overall operating costs.