March 22, 2002	Friday	Muharram 7, 1423

KARACHI, March 21: Towel Manufacturers’ Association of Pakistan vice-chairman S.M.A Rizvi has urged the government and exporters to concentrate on textiles to boost exports.

In a statement issued on Thursday, he said that exporters’ trade bodies had been stressing for the last many years that the country could grow phenomenally in textiles on account of silver fibre — cotton.

He said even today a large number of textile items (categories) were not being exported to the US and EU as no efforts had been made either by the exporters or the EPB.

Rizvi said textile exports were limited to certain categories of cloth, garments, hosiery and home-textiles like bedlinen and towels. There is a lack of attention on other value added items, which could be exported to the US. They include category-219- duck, CMMF; play suits; 239-infant wears; 317/617-cotton twill/ sateen; 336/636-dresses; 341/641-shirts and blouses; 342/642- skirts; 359/659(c)-other cotton apparel; 613/614-sheeting/poplin and broad cloth; 626-printcloth; 627-sheeting; 628-twills and sateens; 629-other mmf.

Similarly, he said, such categories — 07-blouses; 08-shirts; 18-woven under garments and bathrobe; 26-dresses; 28-trousers, bibs and brace overall; 39-table/toilet and kitchen-linen — could easily be exported to the Europe.

He said when the textile ancillary industry sought more government attention it did not mean that “we should ignore other sectors — engineering and consumer products — that can substitute imports and surplus can also be exported.”