Textile minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar has announced that a textile park will be set up in Haryana to boost textile industry since Gurgaon started losing its sheen as choice export hub among investors. This is mainly because of a 45 per cent hike in the minimum wages last year and the increasing real estate cost there.

The proposed park will involve investment to the tune of Rs181 crore of which the centre will provide a subsidy of Rs 40 crore.

The industry members expect flatted factory concept, plug and play models, a synchronised value chain with a processing industry and weaving industry to keep the state intact as a preferable investment destination for an export and textile hub, apart from the adjustment in minimum wages, sops and subsidies.

Gautam Nair, chairman of State Partnership Board, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (northern region), at a forum of 21 member economies that promotes free trade in the region said that labour contributes to as much as 30 per cent of the production cost, this was the reason minimum wages is most talked about.

About labour and skills, Animesh Saxena, president of Gurgaon Industrial Association said, garment is a labour intensive industry where maximum percentage of workers are women, hence the state needs to come up with a certain policy that lets them absorb uneducated women.