ISLAMABAD: The government aims to finalise a five-year textile policy by the end of next month to enhance textile exports to $26 billion by the year 2019.

The new policy will carry support schemes worth Rs80bn in a period of five years.

The first five-year textile policy was unveiled in 2009, but there were major constraints in its implementation. The new policy will focus on value-addition.

Textile Industry Minister Abbas Khan Afridi expressed the hope that every support scheme announced in the policy will be implemented in letter and in spirit.

“We will not wait for the releases of funds,” the minister told Dawn.

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar was given a detailed presentation on Wednesday by the textile minister and his team to seek support for timely implementation of the policy.

Mr Afridi said the new policy would give relief to importers of new machinery meant for value-addition.

He said his ministry had proposed abolition of two per cent sales tax on textile and clothing exports in the next budget.

The new policy will give five per cent support in cash for new exports of textile and clothing.

At the same time, the policy aims to extend training to 120,000 workers, especially in stitching.

The policy would provide jobs to five million people in a period of five years, the minister said.

The first policy was announced by former Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, and it was then claimed that textile and clothing exports will increase up to $25bn by the end of June 2014, with a support scheme of Rs187bn, including cash subsidy of Rs87bn.

When the policy was announced, exports of textile and clothing stood at $9.611bn, which edged up to $13.064bn in 2012-13.

Exports from the sector will slightly cross over $14bn in the last year of the policy, and there would be a shortfall of $10bn from the target projected in the first policy.

The second target, which was missed in the previous policy, was to double the current value-addition of $1000 to $2000 per bales of cotton.

The only reason given for failure of the first policy was release of only Rs28bn to the textile industry for support schemes as against the projected amount of Rs188bn.

The released amount was mostly used in adjustment of earlier rebates to exporters.

But Abbas Khan Afridi told reporters on Wednesday that the PML-N government would provide support schemes on import of technology and machinery in the next budget.

Mr Afridi said that his ministry had also proposed that interest rate be lowered to five per cent in the next monetary policy.

Like the previous policy, the new textile policy will focus on export proceeds instead of focusing on boosting production, which reached saturation point and ultimately low quality products were being manufactured.

The minister said Pakistan was among five countries having all textile value chains, from cotton production to ginning and textile manufacturing.

He said Pakistan only exports 13 items as compared to 950 value-added products export by any other country. The minister blamed the previous government for ignoring this vital sector which provides jobs to people. He said his ministry was working on revival of sick units for boosting exports.

Afridi said that the current seven per cent growth in export of textile and clothing in the past 10 months was satisfactory despite energy crisis.

Published in Dawn, May 15th, 2014