(May 19-2023)
Chairman of National Business Group Pakistan, President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum, and All Karachi Industrial Alliance, and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Friday said China’s share in the global market of ready-made garments is decreasing due to rising business costs and tensions with Western countries.
Rising wages in China, Ukraine policy and tensions with the US are affecting its exports which is an opportunity to other countries, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that taking advantage of the situation, India and Bangladesh are not only increasing their capacity and exports, but also encouraging Chinese industrialists to relocate to their countries.
Talking to the business community, the veteran business leader said that Pakistan should also take advantage of this opportunity and provide business facilities to Chinese industrialists so that the economic situation can improve and people can get employment.
He said that Pakistani exporters should also focus on trade with Japan, the fourth largest importer of garments in the world.
Mian Zahid Hussain added that the size of the global apparel market is 1.7 trillion dollars, in which China’s share is continuously decreasing and Bangladesh is benefiting the most from this, which has more business than China, Vietnam and Indonesia in the American market.
India is taking the second position which is setting up readymade garments units on a large scale in various states while cheap loans are also being given to the private sector to increase the volume of exports which will also increase employment.
India wants to increase the exports of this sector to 30 billion dollars in a few years, while Pakistan’s exports are continuously falling due to rising costs, the whole country is mired in political turmoil and the environment is not conducive for economic reforms.
In the current situation, domestic and foreign businessmen are fleeing the country instead of investing because they think that political and economic stability is difficult in the near future.
