Textile Backbone Of Country's Industrial Sector: Shaukat

[Shehz]

http://www.brecorder.com/latestindex.php?latest_id=4000

Textile backbone of country's industrial sector: Shaukat

ISLAMABAD (updated on: May 03, 2007, 22:11 PST): Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz on Thursday said textile is the backbone of country's industrial sector, and the government will continue to support the private sector in its efforts to modernise itself to increase productivity and competitiveness of our products.

Pakistan has a competitive edge in the textile sector due to the production of high quality cotton in abundant quantity and the country needs to build on this advantage, the Prime Minister said while chairing a meeting here to review the textile sector.

He said that textile sector has shown development during the last few years as a result of several initiatives including tariff rationalisation, conducive trade, finance and fiscal policies, removal of sales tax on textile value chain, reduction in import duty on polyester chain, availability of development finance and export refinance at low markup rate and a hassle free environment provided by the government.

The Prime Minister emphasised that the industry needs to go into the production of high value added goods, technology up-gradation and more focus on research to manufacture in line with the changing global trends.

He said whereas there is a lot of room for textile industry to grow, Pakistan's position in textiles at the global level is not satisfactory and more investment is required in the textile industry to improve exports.

The Prime Minister said there was a need to build scale, bring innovation and improve the productivity and competitiveness of the textile sector. The government will encourage mergers and consolidations in the industry as it will help build the scale and improve productivity, he added.

The Prime Minister emphasised the need to improve labour productivity and said the government is making concerted efforts to impart skills to the labourers.

The Prime Minister said the government has also taken steps to improve production, management and marketing skills in the country to help the industry move up the productivity chain.

Secretary Ministry of Textile Industry presented an overview of the Textile Sector. He said during the first three quarters of the current financial year the overall exports of textile sector increased by 6.5%.

He said knitwear sector is performing better than other sub sectors. The Textile Ministry will interact with the industry associations to discuss incentives needed in the next budget so as to improve overall export performance.

The meeting was attended among others by Minister for Commerce Humayun Akhtar Khan, Minister for Industries and Production Jahangir Khan Tareen, Minister for Textile Industry Mushtaq Ali Cheema, Minister for Food and Agriculture Sikandar Hayat Bosan, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr. Salman Shah, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission Dr. M. Akram Sheikh, Governor State Bank of Pakistan Dr. Shamshad Akhtar, Chief Executive Officer Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) Tariq Akram and senior officials.

Copyright APP (Associated Press of Pakistan), 2007

 

[MirBadshah]

Pakistan edges out India in textile export business

5/4/2007

http://www.financialexpress-bd.com/index3.asp?cnd=5/4/2007&section_id=24&newsid=60092&spcl=no

ISLAMABAD, May 3 (APP): Pakistan's exports to both the US and EU increased by 12 per cent in dollar terms in the first 11 months of 2006.
According to WTO, India recorded growth of only 8 per cent in dollar terms in exports to the US. India performed better by 1 per cent as compared to Pakistan in case of exports to EU.

Exports to Japan declined by 7 per cent. Pakistan exports yarn and fabric to Japan.

In Japan the segment which uses these products is not able to cope with high production cost and has reduced imports.

Pakistan's exports to Canada registered 9 per cent increase. India's exports to Canada increased by six per cent, which is 3 per cent less than that of Pakistan, Baharat Textile.com reported.

India recorded 16 per cent hike in textile exports to Japan compared with 7% decline in Pakistan's exports. India was able to capture some of the textile market in Japan which was previously with Pakistan.

The bulk parcels of textile products that are being sent in large numbers to Pakistanis living in developed countries is not recorded.

The Indian and Chinese exports have surged because of their diversification to other regions and higher shipments to US, EU, Canada and Japan.
Major trends in textile trade remained unchanged which has benefitted countries as Bangladesh, Cambodia and Vietnam. The imposition of quotas on China has not made any effect on the global textile and clothing trade the WTO said, while adding that China's textile and clothing sales were not affected

 

[Cheetah786]

government of Pakistan should not be in the business of subsidizing private business.
As if u keep feeding them they will never learn to grow up.
only subsidies provided should be for heavy engineering and Research and development. textile industries is yesterdays news.
most of our trade deficit is because we import machinery.yet we dont pay attention to that.

 

[Shehz]

From an independent source, not GOP
http://www.bangla-expo.com/DTG/2007/dtg_10.asp

Excerpts:
PTEA chief Rana Arif Tauseef, although welcomed incentives offered to agriculture and other sectors, feared that required financial resources won be available to dish out these incentives and implement the record public sector development programme of Rs320 billion without textile sector contribution to the national economy.
Underlining the textile sector importance, he said its share in the national economy was 65 per cent while it was also providing maximum jobs to the unemployed youth.
He said Pakistani exporters were fully prepared to compete exporters of other countries, but they could not face powerful governments that were extending maximum incentives to their exporters.
Exporters, he said, had been persistently identifying these complications and disparities in the production cost with a request to bail out the textile sector.
He cautioned that the negative impact of this situation would start revealing in next few months making it difficult for exporters to tackle it alone.
FDPT chairman Muhammad Sadiq Chaudhry said that textile exporters had invested heavily to refurbish and expand industrial units to improve their quality and quantity to compete in global markets.
Despite best efforts of textile exporters, he said only 18 per cent growth was achieved as against the expected increase of 32 per cent.
Pakistan, he said, was now producing high quality textile products, but our regional competitors, including China, India and Bangladesh, were flooding international markets with their cheap products with the help of their governments.
Our competitors had an edge of cheap electricity, gas and loans in addition to subsidies, which were being extended to them in shape of technical measures.
While exporters claimed that the production cost was manifold in Pakistan as compared to other countries because of continuous increase in rates of gas, electricity and bank loans.
They demanded removal of the Export Development Fund (EDF) levy and deferment of loan repayments for two to three years to ensure sustained economic growth and achieving export targets.
Faisalabad Garments City chairman Sheikh Mukhtar Ahmed urged President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to take immediate measures to redress grievances of textile exporters.
He said the repayment of loan instalments had also become a formidable challenge to textile exporters as loan rates had gone much high, putting additional burden on them.