KARACHI: Leading industrialists of the country have expressed their concern over the deterioration in textile sector. They say that industry is working on negative margins and survival of value added textile industry in particular is at stake due to high cost of production, and exporters are relocating business to Bangladesh.
Pakistan and Bangladesh had great specialty in textile and readymade garments respectively. Bangladesh has offered Pakistani industrialists to join hands in increasing exports in apparel from Bangladesh, which was enjoying quota free access to EU and USA. Bangladesh exported apparels last year to the tune of $ 6 billion.
Bangladesh suggested that by setting up joint ventures Bangladesh and Pakistan could easily compete with China and India in the WTO free trade area. They can jointly grab share of 30 billion dollars in $ 250 billion global textile trade. According to informed sources on the energy side Bangladesh was in better position than India and Pakistan. It had gas reserves sufficient for 30 years and coal reserves for 200 years. The consumption of gas in its industries had grown by 41 percent and about 500 new industries were coming up every month in Bangladesh.
On the other hand our garment industry lacks skilled workforce to manufacture items of international standard and there is considerable shortage of trained manpower.
But government has failed to make any viable plan to establish training institutes at appropriate places. The Central Chairman of APTMA, Ahmed Kuli Khan Khattak drawing the government attention has also stressed that textile exporters are at disadvantage compared to exports from other developing countries such as Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India and China.
He disclosed that good days in textile business are over. After the end of textile quotas the prices in the international market have come down, whereas in Pakistan with the increase in export refinancing rates during the year besides persistent rise in the raw cotton rates in local market cost of production has considerably increased, making our exports costlier than competing countries like China and India.
Regarding government? policy to export entire stocks of cotton lying with TCP and short crop in the current season resulting to hike in the prevailing rates, APTMA chief urged to review the policy on urgent basis and allow TCP cotton for sale to local mills only. Over the last five years or so, spinning capacity of Pakistan has enlarged but the government? side has failed to give a clear-cut policy on increasing the cotton crop to ensure availability of sufficient cotton locally at reasonable rates, Ali Kuli Khan added.
