Prime Source Forum tackles industry issues

For the ninth time, industry leaders will meet at Prime Source Forum in Hong Kong to tackle the issues that concern the garment

industry today. From tomorrow, 1st April and on Wednesday, 2nd April 2014, more than 400 senior executives from over 20 countries and companies like Marks & Spencer, Puma, Perry Ellis, Under Armour, Super Dry International, Alvanon, VF Asia, Luen Thai Holdings, the Crystal Group and TAL Apparel will dialogue about pertinent topics.

Many industry associations will also participate, among them the Textile Council of Hong Kong, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association, the United States Fashion Industry Association, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, the African Cotton & Textiles Industries Federation and others.

Among the issues discussed are sourcing from multi-national manufacturers, changing trends in supplying countries and the impact of trade agreements and alternative supplying countries, supported by case studies on supply chain solutions, the cost of a garment today and running off-shore companies.

Day two starts with a keynote address on rebuilding the garment industry in Bangladesh, followed by sessions on sustainability, product innovation and development, a snapshot on technical functions in fashion and a case study on technology and process modernisation.

The Prime Source Forum is not limited to the sourcing aspect of the supply chain but is dedicated to all sources of information of the fashion industry. As a forum rather than a conference, delegate involvement is key and an important element of its success.

“I think the interactive opportunity is really good. We have an industry that is not used to having a lot of conversation around long-term strategic issues and I think we are at a critical phase in our industry development in which we need to spend time to talk to each other to understand what is going on and perhaps spend more time reflecting on the future because there is so much turbulence in our supply chain”, says Edwin KEH, CEO, the Hong Kong Research Institute of Textiles and Apparel (HKRITA) and lecturer at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.