“The overall objective of SAFSA is to try to integrate textile and apparel relationships within ASEAN so we can be more competitive globally. Today, the industry is in transition. It used to be under quotas but now it’s free market. A lot of things that applied to the quota system don’t apply today. Buyers, international brand names, importers and retailers want the providers and suppliers to take a greater role in providing services. Virtually these services are available in ASEAN but are not available within a single firm or a single country.

“The idea of SAFSA is to allow the companies throughout ASEAN to become more integrated so they can provide a wider range of services to the buyers. For example, we partner garment factories somewhere within ASEAN with the textile mills. Therefore, the textile mills can bring in the yarn, the spinner whilst the garment factories can bring in the trims, buttons, snaps, zippers, those things that use for the garmenting. Together the partnership would be able to cover all supply chain of textile and apparel to the international buyers.”