LAHORE, May 15: The biggest US chain of multinational department stores has decided to buy home textile products and readymade garments worth Rs8 billion from Pakistan every year.

Leader of a US retailers’ delegation, Tom Gorski, said this at a dinner reception arranged by Governor Khalid Maqbool at the Governor House on Saturday night. He said the annual sale of Pakistani textile products in various super stores of J.C. Penny Inc was around $70 million. The demand had increased because of an improvement in their quality, he said.

To fulfil the demand, he said, the company had decided to double the imports of Pakistani textile products and readymade garments during the next two years.

The governor welcomed the US traders and said the Pakistan government was trying to ensure that the country’s products competed in the world market in terms of price and quality.

He said the government would establish two new garment zones in Lahore and Faisalabad with the cooperation of garment exporters’ association. Modern stitching units would be installed in these zones to improve the quality of Pakistani garments, he said.

Mr Maqbool said growers understood the importance of contamination-free cotton, and in view of this one could hope an increase in the demand of Pakistani textile products in the developed countries.