August 1, 2002	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 21,1423

KARACHI, July 31: The on-going slump at stock markets in Europe and the US has affected Pakistani exports, particularly exports of bedwear. This was stated by the chairman, Pakistan Bedwear Exporters Association Shabbir Ahmed on Wednesday.

Talking to APP, Shabbir Ahmed said that despite a good export performance during fiscal year 2001-02, bedwear exports are facing problems due to stock market crisis in the US and Europe.

“Bedwear exports are slow due to heavy stock losses to our buyers in the west,” said Shabbir Ahmed.

Bedwear exports registered a 23.31 per cent increase in terms of dollars and 29.16 per cent in terms of rupee as compared to figures of last year. The quantity rose to 22.42 per cent during the last fiscal year.

According to official figures, Pakistan exported 181,627 tons of bedwear worth $918.5 million in 2001-02 against 148,366 tons worth $744.883 million in 2000-01.

The unprecedented increase in bedwear exports during last fiscal is attributed to 15 per cent increase in quota by European Union and other incentives to exporters by the Pakistan government.

“We have targeted to hit $10.4 billion exports during the current fiscal year, but in the given conditions, it seems difficult to achieve the target,” remarked Shabbir Ahmed.

He said the Pakistani exporters are exploring other markets to export bedwear, as they face tough competition from China and Turkey in the traditional markets.

Pakistan’s traditional market for bedwear exports are USA, Germany, France, Netherlands and Scandinavian countries.

The PBEA Chairman appreciated the incentives given by the government to exporters in the new Trade Policy 2002-03 and said these measures will help increase exports to some extent.

However, he said due to world market slump the situation is not encouraging.—APP