LAHORE: The true potential of the textile sectors lies in value-added apparel exports, for which the government should solve the problems of the garment and knitwear exporters to ensure sustainable textile exports. As Pakistan entered the textile field through basic textiles (yarn and fabric) the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) is still considered the apex body for consultation in addressing the textile related issues.
The association encroaches upon the domain of apparel producers to advice the government on garmenting industry also. Government functionaries including the prime minister give more time to APTMA than any other association. There is no doubt that the basic textile sector is facing some problems –the primary problem is its inability to keep up with the technology in the last decade. It has become inefficient. More than 100 textile mills have closed down for good mainly due to obsolete technology. The surviving mills got a breather through massive devaluation and supply of power and energy at subsidized rates.
This sector should be facilitated in upgrading its technology. But for matters relating to garments and knitwear the policy makers should listen to the representatives of their registered association. Director Trade Organization has registered different trade associations from textile subsectors that should facilitate the economic planners to interact with them and remove the bottlenecks in exports. No association should be allowed to encroach in the others’ domain.
The APTMA has lately started offering its membership to the garment and knitwear exporters as well. However, an overwhelming majority of readymade garment and knitwear exports are still the members of their respective associations. There is a reason for registering the subsector association of textiles. There is a conflict of interest in each subsector. For instance the yarn manufacturers desire that there should be duty on import of yarn, while the apparel sector wants this basic raw material to be imported without any duty. In the same way, fabric manufacturers want protection against imported fabric and the apparel sector opposes it.
ISLAMABAD: The draft of Pakistan Textile Policy for 2020-25 with four tier strategy and 21 recommendations is all set to be pitched any time before the ECC (Economic Coordination Committee) for approval. It will try to increase the country’s textile exports target by 2025 to $25.3 billion and $50 billion by 2030. It was $13.33 billion in 2018. The Pakistan Textile Policy draft, available with The News, also narrates a clear roadmap to achieve the textile export targets along with vision to fully utilize the potential of home-grown cotton augmented by Manmade Fiber/Filament to boost value added exports and become a major player in the global textiles supply chain.
The draft of Textile Policy also spells out its the objectives which include
1) Restoring profitability of cotton farmers by increasing cotton yield, improving quality of cotton and decreasing cost of production for the farmers;
2) Strengthening manmade fiber/filament sector to make this chain internationally competitive and export oriented;
3) Regionally competitive energy pricing fixed for five years;
4) Prompt Sales Tax Refund System;
5) Abolition of Zero- Rating has created serious liquidity crisis for exporting sectors as the current refund system is soaking up market liquidity and is not working;
6) Long Term Financing Facility for the entire textile value chain;
7) Revival of impaired textile capacity and introduction of bankruptcy law.
8) Establishment of Textile clusters and Export Processing Zones with plug and play facilities.
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