May 04, 2007	Friday	Rabi-us-Sani 16, 1428

ISLAMABAD, May 3: Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz said on Thursday that Pakistan's position in textiles at the global level is not satisfactory and more investment is required in the textile industry to improve exports.

Chairing a meeting on textile industry here, the premier said there was a need to bring innovation and improve productivity and competitiveness of the textile sector.

Ministers for textile, commerce, industry and agriculture were also present.

Mr Aziz said that the government would encourage mergers and consolidations in the industry as it would help improve productivity.

“Textile is the backbone of our industrial sector and the government will continue to support the sector in its efforts to modernise itself to increase productivity and competitiveness of our products,” he added.

He, however, said Pakistan has a competitive edge in the textile sector due to production of high quality cotton in abundance and the country needs to build on this advantage.

The prime minister said that textile sector has shown development during the last few years as a result of the several initiatives, including tariff rationalisation, conducive trade, finance and fiscal policies, removal of sales tax on textile value chain, reduction in import duty on polyester chain, availability of development finance and export refinance at low markup rate and a hassle-free environment provided by the government.

He emphasised that the industry needs to go into production of high value-added goods, technology upgradation and more focus on research to manufacture in line with the changing global trends. He stressed the need for improving labour productivity and said that the government was making efforts to impart skills of labourers.

Mr Aziz said the government had also taken steps to improve production, management and marketing skills in the country to help the industry move up the productivity chain.

Secretary, ministry of textile industry, presented an overview of the textile sector. He said during the first three quarters of the current financial year, overall exports of textile sector increased by 6.5 per cent.

He said knitwear sector is performing better than other sub-sector. The textile ministry will interact with the industry associations to discuss incentives needed in the next budget so as to improve overall export performance, he added.