Page 12 - January-February-2021

Pakistan’s trade expected to
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lifted to $5 billion with Pak-Italy

bilateral trade relations

Italian government has their eyes set on strengthen- volume of $5. The ambassador also explained that
ing ties with Pakistan through all the industries that now potential investors from Pakistan will be offered
display opportunities. They believe that both the 3 to 5 years valid visas. “This will help enhance
countries’ economic ties can be magnified as Italy’s business-to-business contacts as well as trade
ambassador in Islamabad has been involved in relations between the two nations.”
several conferences to discuss all the ways in which
this relationship can be nourished. During Italian “For the first time, Rome has ranked first among
Ambassador Andreas Ferrarese visit to the Lahore
Chamber (LCCI), he said, “Italy has over $5 trillion in major supplying markets for Pakistan’s imports from
savings, hence it possesses ample fiscal space to the European Union,” he said. “With a consistent
undertake investment projects,” the envoy said. uptrend in two-way trade, it is indeed a healthy sign
“Pakistani investors should come forward and avail that both imports and exports are increasing with
themselves of investment opportunities.” each passing year. Italy is extending technical Finesse to introduce Artificial Intelligence (AI) to
assistance to Pakistan in textile, leather and marble
The bilateral trade volume can be lifted to a big sectors,” he stated. predict fashion trend and reduce waste generation

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the simulation of human He further said, “In the simplest terms, you can think
of what we do as seeing when Kylie posts a picture
intelligence processes by machines, especially
Home textile products of Turkish computer systems. Specific AI applications include on Instagram and people go crazy about it … and
expert systems, natural language processing (NLP),
then you see that happen not just on Kylie’s post but
across Instagram, TikTok, Google Trends,” he said.
speech recognition, and machine vision. The utilization
textile led their exports in 2020 of AI is increasing in all fields, including textiles. “We predict the establishing of a trend before it goes
super-viral. Finesse then uses this data to design
waste using AI to predict fashion trends that would
of a “speedy supply chain,” along with tools like
Even during the Pandemic era, the Turkish Textile impact on 10 major textile-producing nations in Asia: Finesse comes up with an idea to reduce textile new products. Ahmari said that by taking advantage
Industries boosted their production According to Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, allow brands to see future trends. Thus, they can CLO 3D-modeling software, Finesse could go from
data released by an industry group, Turkey exported Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, and avoid unnecessary production of textiles that would identifying a trend to having a product available for
home textile products worth over $2.49 billion to 194 Vietnam. According to the ILO, around 65 million not get the desired market. Finesse, a startup purchase in less than 25 days.”
countries and autonomous regions last year. people work in the textile industry in these countries promising to take the guesswork and waste out of
or 75% of all textile workers worldwide. fashion, announces that it has raised $4.5 million in Unlike most fashion companies, Ahmari said that
A majority of the exports were made to the Western seed and pre-seed funding. Finesse does not need to employ a giant design
countries -- Germany ($480.6 million), the US The exports worth $904.8 million to these three department. However, he suggested that team
($295.4 million), and the UK ($128.7 million), countries accounted for 36.33% of the total home Founder and CEO Ramin Ahmari said the members like Vice President of Product Andrea
according to data by the Turkish Home Textile textile sales. They were followed by Italy and the tremendous waste in the fashion industry had Knopf and Head of Product Development Brittany
Industrialists and Businessmen's Association Netherlands with $107 million and $102.7 million, become a poorly kept secret, with Burberry recently Fleck, who work in tandem with the startup’s
(TETSIAD) compiled by Anadolu Agency. respectively. The exports to Afghanistan rose facing a backlash over its practice of burning algorithms, are “artists in their own right.”
significantly by 130% to reach $2.37 million in 2020, unwanted products. The industry as a whole
According to a new ILO report, plummeting sales, compared to 2019. Moreover, exports to Vietnam produced an estimated 13 million tons of textile MaC Managing Partner Marlon Nichols said, “We
closed factories, and lower wages are just some of surpassed $1.7 million, with 128.5% in the same waste each year. He said that Finesse is looking to believe that Finesse is truly the future of fashion,
the problems. The pandemic closure is particularly period. change that by taking advantage of fashion trends from its trend prediction to sustainable supply chain
dramatic in countries where the textile sector moving out of the “hermetically sealed” world of and manufacturing. We hope other fashion brands
accounts for a large share of all exports. Therefore, there is a lot to learn from Turkish's Textile catwalks and onto social media, where new can learn from Finesse’s disruption in the space,
Strategy for Pakistan and other Asian countries for products take off “on the backs and bodies and
Researchers from ILO have studied the pandemic's lifting their textile exports despite pandemic. posts” of influencers like Kylie Jenner. and we’re eager to see what’s next.”

January/February 2021 January/February 2021