Pakistan : PHMA asks to restrict cotton yarn exports

Jawaid Bilwani, Chairman of Pakistan Hosiery Manufactures Associations (PHMA) has requested Government to restrict export of cotton yarn to increase exports of apparel.

High exports of cotton yarn adversely affect production of value added apparel as it is main component required to make apparel, informed Jawaid Bilwani.

Value added apparels earn more foreign exchange than the cotton yarn exports and therefore, more emphasize has been given on apparel exports.

Pakistan : Knitwear exports have upper hand over Chinese quotas

Knitwear exporters of Pakistan draw advantage from substantial Chinese quotas in certain products.

Following a decline earlier in the year, knitwear exports accelerated during May.

Exports during September amounted to 7.033 million dozen, a year-on-year rise of 11.1 percent.

From January to September, exports of knitwear amount to 53.397 million dozen, a year-on-year drop of 7.6 percent. September exports were also a record for the month.

In the non-knit apparel segment, exports boosted up during the same period, reaching 56.7 percent to 29.812 million square meters.

Apparel exports from Pakistan show competitiveness in cotton apparel and have been winning market share from China in some products.

Pakistan : Jute & polypropylene makers compete for order

To obtain order of sacks for storing 5 million tons of wheat, jute mills and polypropylene manufactures are in competition.

Purchase of sacks will be an expensive job as about five hundred million of sacks with storing capacity of 100 kilograms each will be required for stocking wheat.

At present, a jute bag of 100 kilogram capacity will cost PRK60 to 70, while polypropylene bags are of PRK20.

However, Government prefers jute bags as they are environment-friendly and could be reused two to three times.

Moreover, those who are against polypropylene bags believe that it deteriorates quality of wheat, while those opposing jute bags claim that they fail to protect wheat from rats leading to loss of four to five percent of soaked wheat per annum.

Experts have urged the Government to conduct a detail study on cost and advantages before purchasing bags for stocking wheat.

At the time of harvest every year, Punjab Government usually procures 3 to 3.5 million tons of wheat.

Similarly, Food Department of Sindh and PASSCO procure one million tons each during this period.

Govt committed to value added apparel sector – Textile Minister

The Textile Minister, Mr Rana Muhammad Farooq Saeed Khan, said that garments sector is considered the most profitable as compared to other textile sub-sectors and that the government is committed to make it centre of value added manufacturing goods. He conveyed this message in a meeting with representatives of the apparel manufacturing sector. He said the importance of the clothing sector has been highlighted in the recently released textile policy, but lamented that the sector was allowed to languish since so many years. He also said that the government is focusing on providing trained manpower and vocational training institutes are being set up for this purpose where modern and up-dated education and skill training would be imparted. He added by saying that the government is committed to make apparel manufacturing as centre of value added manufacturing goods and for this purpose special arrangements would be made for fashion, designing, brand and especially marketing. He concluded by saying that special incentives would be given, and product development centers would also be constituted for the promotion of this sector. The delegation also complimented him for announcing the first ever textile policy.

First ever Industrial Policy to be announced by year end

Present government has the honor to formulate first ever Industrial Policy, after a long time, to promote industrial sectors of the economy which will be announced in a couple of months. Mian Manzoor Ahmed Wattoo, Federal Minister for Industries & Production said this while addressing the business community at Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry. He said government was working on first ever comprehensive Industrial Policy for giving boost to this important sector of the economy in consultation with all stakeholders and accommodating their views and suggestions in the new policy. He asked the businessmen to give their proposals to make this policy more industry friendly. On this occasion, he announced that a Marble City will be set up in Islamabad in collaboration with Pakistan Stone Development Company (PASDEC), which will give a boost to local marble industry. He said government was giving priority attention to the promotion of SME sector which was considered engine of growth and a key source for job creation. He said SMEDA would be made more active to accelerate the pace of development of SMEs in the country. Dilating upon energy crisis, Manzoor Wattoo said government was working on different options for meeting the energy requirements of the country including wind, coal & gas etc. He said country was facing a shortfall of 3000 MW while due to fault at Mangla power station; this shortage had gone up to 4100 MW. However, he assured that by end of July, industry will face no loadshedding while country will get rid of this problem by December this year. Speaking on the occasion, Mian Shaukat Masud, President, Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) highlighted business community issues. He said industry was in deep troubles due to multiple factors including power shortage, law & order situation, high interest rates and high production cost etc. He said Ministry of Industries & Production had a key role to play in creating an enabling environment for industrial growth. He said Pakistan, with a consumer market of 170 million people, abundance of raw materials, cheap labor and entrepreneurship, was endowed with all the requisites to climb the ladder of industrialization and all it needed was a conducive Industrial Policy to become a growing industrial country. He said large-scale manufacturing and textile sectors needed special packages for bringing them out of negative growth and government should work out such packages in consultation with business community to put industry on the path of growth. He said Islamabad was badly needed a new Industrial Estate as the existing Industrial Estates had saturated and sought the Minister’s help for accelerating the establishment of I-17 Sector Industrial Estate. He said despite earning good profits, banks were providing no soft terms loans to industrial sector and government should come forward to ensure easy loaning facilities and tax relief measures for struggling industries.

APTMA welcomes step to supply uninterrupted gas supply

The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) has thanked the government for taking the decision to supply uninterrupted gas supply for five days in a week. It added that though closure of industries for two days in a week was very painful, it fully supported the government and the country in its hour of crisis. This decision of the government will help save millions of jobs in the winter season as well as the export industry, which used to keep capacities idle in winter, due to shortage of gas. APTMA has pledged its support to the government and its policies and said it is ready to make this immense sacrifice and share the shortage with all sectors and industries of the country.

Govt to be meticulous with policies for achieving GDP targets

Government of Pakistan is planning to set the GDP growth target at around 7 percent for the forthcoming fiscal year 2008-09 against the achieved 5.7 percent of the current fiscal year. Low growth of GDP, in this fiscal year, was largely due to decline in key sectors like agriculture; manufacturing sector; exports and foreign direct investment. In an exclusive interview with Fibre2fashion, Nasir Jamal Director General-Media Ministry of Finance, said, “Pakistan needs a sustained macroeconomic stability, financial discipline and consistent and transparent policies for achieving targets for the next fiscal. Efficient management and structural reforms introduced in the recent past have brought about healthy changes in almost all sectors of the economy. A major breakthrough has been achieved in managing the domestic and external debt”. Besides, Mr Nasir also affirmed that the Government has plans to provide relief to major industries from the ongoing inflation and policies will be adopted in the upcoming budget for the same purpose. Additionally, encouragement of industrial clusters, support for technology transfer and facilitation of import of power generating small units are some of the areas to be given priority in the budget. Fiscal and tax incentives for encouraging small medium enterprises (SMEs) will also be encompassed through increased allocation of credit for this sector. In the agriculture sector, measures will be taken to improve cotton production that would help ensure availability of raw cotton on reasonable rates for the ginning industry as well as for the textile industry to increase production and ensure enhanced exports of textile products.