Prestasi alam sekitar r antaian industri tekstil dan pakaian di Malaysia: F aktor dorongan daripada perspektif pemodenan ekologi (The environmental performance of the textile and apparel in dustrial linkage in Malaysia: motivating factors from an ecological modernisation perspective)

Abstract

Industri tekstil dan pakaian dianggap sebagai industry sunset terutama sekali dengan kemasukan China sebagai ahli Pertubuhan Perdagangan Antarabangsa serta persaingan yang sengit dalam persekitaran bebas kuota sejak awal 2005. Persaingan yang hebat daripada pengeluar China daripada segi kos pengeluaran yang lebih rendah mempunyai impak ke atas prestasi alam sekitar dalam industri tersebut. Bagaimanapun, rantaian tekstil dan pakaian di Malaysia pernah mencatat pematuhan Peraturan Kualiti Alam Sekitar (Udara Bersih) 1978 setinggi 90 peratus. Kertas ini bertujuan menguji secara kuantitatif penghubungan industri-industri dalam paradigm Teori Pemodenan Ekologikal (TPE) dalam rantaian tekstil dan pakaian di Malaysia. Keputusan statistik Kendall tau-b menunjukkan faktor-faktor yang mendorong prestasi alam sekitar yang lebih baik ialah pendedahan kepada perdagangan antarabangsa, tahap integrasi menegak dan intensiti hubungan antarabangsa. Kertas ini merumuskan bahawa aplikasi TPE perlu diubahsuai berdasarkan konteks lokal dan pembangunan institusi di Malaysia agar dapat menambaik amalan pensijilan alam sekitar yang telah pun menyumbang kepada pengharmonian amalan alam sekitar, selaras dengan ciri TPE.

Katakunci: pensijilan alam sekitar, pengharmonian amalan alam sekitar, Peraturan Kualiti Alam Sekitar, prestasi alam sekitar, rantaian tekstil dan pakaian, Teori Pemodenan Ekologikal (TPE)

The textile and apparel industry has come to be regarded as a sunset industry especially with the membership of China in the World Trade Organisation and the stiff competition ensuing from an environment of unrestricted quota since early 2005. The highly keen competition from the Chinese manufacturers in the form of lowered production costs had, furthermore, impacted adversely on the environmental performance of the industry. Yet, in Malaysia the textile-apparel lingkage had managed to register a 90 percent compliance with the country‘s 1978 Environmental Quality Act (Clean Air). This paper embarks on a quantitative test of the Malaysian textile-apparel industrial lingkage within the paradigm of the ecological modernisation theory ( EMT). Results of the Kendall tau-b statistical tests establish the role of three factors in driving positive ecological performance of the textile-apparel industrial lingkage, namely, the exposure to international trade, the level of vertical integration, and the intensity of international relation. The paper concludes that the application of EMT needs to be modified and adapted to the Malaysian local as well as institutional contexts to enhance further the already positive contribution of the existing environmental certification to environmental harmonisation practices that are characteristic of the EMT.

Keywords: ecological modernisation theory, environmental certification, environmental harmonisation, Environmental Quality Act, ecological performance, textile-apparel industrial lingkage