LAHORE, Feb 14: President Asif Zardari has invited the All-Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) leadership for a meeting on Tuesday to discuss issues relating to cotton and energy shortages.

The meeting is expected to be attended by senior officials of the textile, petroleum, agriculture and commerce in addition to a 10-member Aptma delegation, led by its chairman Gohar Ejaz.

The president has convened the meeting days after he assured the industry of tackling all “micro and macro” level problems being faced by it on a priority basis.

The president had given the assurance during his address at the annual dinner of Aptma at the presidency last Friday.

Mr Gohar told Dawn on Monday that President Zardari’s intervention for ensuring free trade mechanism for the textile trade has helped boost textile exports by a whopping 26 per cent during the first half of 2010-11 against the country’s overall export growth of just less than 21 per cent.

He said the free trade mechanism had also brought windfall for cotton farmers who earned an additional Rs200 billion this year on a shorter crop.

He said Pakistan’s textiles and clothing sector had been integrated into international trade which is likely to grow to $800 billion in a few years.

He, however, called for a special line of credit for industry at internationally competitive interest rates for boosting exports and creating jobs.

Gohar said the president had appreciated the role of Aptma and its leadership for guiding the government in the right direction which had resulted in textile export growth and transfer of additional income into the rural economy of the country.

The Aptma leader had stated that limited market access, raw material (cotton and man-made fibre) shortages, higher interest rates and energy crunch as major factors were stalling growth of the textile industry and fresh investment in the country.

“In response to my submissions, the president had assured the industry of addressing its problems on a priority basis and constitute a textile advisory committee for this,” Gohar said.

Gohar said the president would ensure follow-ups of the government initiatives for the growth of textile industry.

The Aptma also acknowledged the role of President Zardari for development of the industry by conferring him a special award on the occasion.The textile exports went up by more than 40 per cent to around $1.3 billion during January from $0.9 billion the same month last year. “The textile exports have grown significantly in spite of energy shortages and high cost of borrowing.

“We are hopeful of increasing textile exports by $4 billion to $14 billion this year. But if we want to boost our textile exports to $16 billion next year, we will have to inject fresh investment,” Gohar said.