21^st February 2025; New Delhi/ Gurugram: Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC) celebrated its 47th Foundation Day at its headquarters at Apparel House in Gurugram. The event began with lighting of lamps and cutting of cake. The senior functionaries and staff members of AEPC were present on the occasion.

Shri Sudhir Sekhri, Chairman AEPC in his comment said, “The very fact that AEPC has successfully completed 47 years is a testament to the fact that it has lived up to the expectation of the entire apparel industry in general and apparel exporters in particular. On this occasion, AEPC prides itself for continuously taking up the industry issues aggressively with the government and all related agencies to promote, protect and safeguard the interests of the RMG sector.”

Further Shri Sekhri said, “Relentless efforts of the organisation to promote the vision of the Hon’ble PM has started paying rich dividends resulting in the apparel exports witnessing impressive growth since last 10 months. The export growth of 11.6% was registered during April- January 2024-25 over the corresponding period of last financial year despite global headwinds, geo-political challenges and supply chain disruptions.” 

Addressing the gathering Shri Mithileshwar Thakur, Secretary General AEPC stated that, “Equally impressive is the growth witnessed in traditional big markets like USA and EU.  Exports of RMG products have grown by 13.8% in the USA, 8.9% in the UK, 10.6% in Germany and 19.7% in Spain. Substantial growth is visible even in old and new FTA partner countries such as South Korea, Japan, Australia, Mauritius and UAE.”

On this occasion, the Apparel Export Promotion Council thanked the government especially Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, Textiles Minister Shri Giriraj Singh and Commerce and Industry Minister Shri Piyush Goyal for providing all help and support to the garment industry.

The government’s key initiatives such as PM MITRA, PLI; extension of RoSCTL, FTAs with UAE and Australia, deeper and nuanced export strategy for 20 identified countries of prominence by engaging with Indian embassies in those countries coupled with encouragement to farmers to produce extra- long staple cotton varieties and broad-basing skilling programmes will surely accelerate growth of the sector.
The steps taken recently by the government towards establishment of Export Promotion Mission, creation of a unified digital platform Bharat-Trade-Net to streamline export documentation, support to MSMEs by facilitating easier access to credit by enhancing credit guarantee cover and setting up national centres of excellence for skilling etc. will provide momentum to the sector.

The Council has planned to promote the global reach of Indian apparel exports by diversification of markets to newer and non-traditional markets through its export promotion activities in 2025-26.
AEPC has been motivating and handholding the Indian garment industry to adopt eco-friendly and sustainable practices and embrace the global best practices on environmental and social compliances.
In its journey of 47 glorious years, AEPC has reached many important milestones and aspires to cross many more through market intelligence, capacity building, trade facilitation, participation in overseas events and policy advocacy.

AEPC has also initiated a social media blast to spread awareness about AEPC’s ongoing activities focusing on how the government supports the apparel industry.

The executive committee members of AEPC congratulated all the employees of the council on reaching another year of accomplishments and achievements.