KARACHI, Dec 15: Federal Minister for Textile Industry, Mushtaq Ali Cheema on Wednesday said the government was working to streamline the textile industry and for this purpose a business centre was being established in the ministry.

He was speaking at a luncheon meeting with members of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry here at the Federation House. He said in textile business, the private sector was playing a vital role and the government would fully encourage them in modernizing the textile sector.

He said after creation of separate ministry for textiles the problems facing the textile sector would be solved within shortest possible time. In this connection, all the suggestions and recommendations from private sector would be welcome as Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz was taking personal interest to promote this value-adding sector.

"We have textile surplus, which demands aggressive marketing through private-public partnership. We should mainly focus on regional trade," he said. He said with improved relations with India, Pakistan would have a huge market to explore as there is good demand for Pakistani textile products.

India excels in textile machinery parts which would reduce our cost of business. The expected increase in mutual trade would ultimately change the socio-economic conditions of the two peoples.

The government was also in search of various channels to ensure availability of raw materials at minimum possible price to make the local industries compatible in post-WTO regime.

The government has already made banking sector business-friendly where they could get finances at lower rates and on soft terms. Further, the government had not increased petroleum prices to save the private sector from any additional burden.

The textile minister said, however the government would further improve its strategy in this direction through constant liaison with private sector and the feed back would always be welcome.

Earlier, in his address of welcome, Vice President of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Arshad Alam said the private sector had invested $4 billion in textile industry of the country and this sector was the leading contributor to national exports.

This sector would play front role in post-WTO regime for sustained growth of Pakistan's economy. However, more incentives and policy support from the government would be required to make this industry more competitive in the free-market.

"We would have to enter into joint ventures with foreign investors to capture due share in regional and international markets," he stressed. Speaking at the briefing of Textile Commissioner Organization, the Federal Minister for Textile said that Textile Commissionarate will be restructured to further facilitate textile industry under the WTO regime.

Secretary Textile Industry M Tehseen Iqbal Khan was also present on the occasion. He said that textile industry was being modernise and expanded to meet the challenges of forthcoming Globalization. Textile industry has imported new machinery worth $1 billion during the last one year to upgrade facilities, he observed.

Cheema said this was reflective of keen interest of private sector in modernization and expansion of textile industry to further improve quality. Referring to trade with India, he said that after opening up of bilateral trade, Pakistani textiles will find a big market in neighbouring country. We want to promote regional trade under Saarc umbrella, he added.

The minister underlined the need for an early formulation of new textile policy to reap the benefits of World Trade Organization. Earlier, Textile Commissioner Mohammad Idris Ahmed briefed the minister about the working of the Commissionerate and review of progress of textile city. -APP