(December 23, 2020)
Chairman of National Business Group of FPCCI, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Wednesday said textile is the first major sector which has recovered from the pandemic.
Supportive policies, timely import of cotton and trade tensions between the US and China has infused new life in this most important sector of the economy, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that textile exports jumped by nine percent over the exports of Nov 2019 to reach 1.28 billion dollars while the value added sector played a major role in it.
Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that failure of cotton crops has reduced exports of yarn and grey cloth but the exports of all value added items except for readymade garments has jumped.
If cotton imports would have been delayed it would have been a disaster for the largest industrial sector but timely decisions helped the industry, he added.
Abolishing regulatory duty on the cotton imports has also helped the textile sector which has enough orders to run on full capacity for the next six months to earn foreign exchange for the country, he said.
The business leader said that normalised relations between the US and China will push western buyers to the competitive markets therefore steps should be taken to keep the momentum in exports which include releasing refunds, improving cotton crop and provision of energy on competitive rates.
He said that local cotton output has dropped by fifty percent while the cotton production has doubled in neighbouring India which must be studied while efforts are needed to ensure continuation of GSP status which is set to expire in 2023.
