Textile exports seen falling by $3.5bn

E-Paper | June 07, 2026

LAHORE: The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association on Friday urged the government to announce the Strategic Trade Policy Framework immediately, saying an undue delay would push the textile industry exports further down.

“Textile exports have reduced by 14 per cent over the last six months and if this trend persists, it will lead to a reduction of $3.5 billion in exports by the year-end,” Aptma Punjab Zone Chairman Aamir Fayyaz said while addressing a press conference.

He pointed out that the cotton crop failure in Punjab had resulted in $1.5bn loss to farmers and total loss would reach $5bn with the addition of loss in exports.

Fayyaz said regional competitors including China, Bangladesh and India were filling up their coffers with foreign exchange earned out of exports and not the International Monetary Fund.

He said Aptma had put forward six points to the government for strengthening exports. The government should understand that a downward trend would be irreversible if continued unabated as the buyers would not return to us. He suggested the government should pass on the benefit of reduction in oil prices internationally.

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2016

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Truth

Feb 13, 2016 08:11am

No light, no gas, no water, no production, no surprise at all !

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Shahid

Feb 13, 2016 10:06am

"Fayyaz said regional competitors including China, Bangladesh and India were filling up their coffers with foreign exchange earned out of exports and not the International Monetary Fund." This achievement of Mr Dar is and will be paid dearly by people of Pakistan

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Mohammed Hund

Feb 13, 2016 10:29am

If neighboring countries can make money, what's stopping Pakistan?

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amin

Feb 13, 2016 11:39am

@Mohammed Hund, Lack of Vision' Corruption and Nepotism

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M. Emad

Feb 13, 2016 04:39pm

Bangladesh Textile Exports grew 14% and total $16.5bn in the first six months of 2015-16 fiscal year.

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ak4pk

Feb 14, 2016 06:38am

We do not seem to have business acumen, punctuality does not appear to be our virtue, decision makers do not come to work past mid-day. Businesses do not hire people from the country they do business in, hence language and local custom is a big barrier. We do not pay much attention to quality and packaging of our exports. We rarely keep our promise. We fail to realise that it happens to be the buyers world not the sellers. With such unhealthy attitude one can hardly expect ones export to go up.

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zafar

Feb 14, 2016 08:47am

We have no exports, but we do have orange, green, blue lines. Where are all those extolling the virtues of this corrupt PMLN regime!

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Imaddi

Feb 14, 2016 09:25am

@M. Emad lol who are you. Why Keep mentioning BD in everything? I think it's a sign for Pakistan to invest in making higher value goods and services other than textile. Let's branch out like China and Japan did decades ago. Educate and invest in education. Patent things rather than copying the infamous sweat shops like BD where workers crushed in factory collapses.

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Imaddi

Feb 14, 2016 09:39am

@M. Emad for your attention; BD has upcoming serious difficulties of their own and your constant boasting on here might have to suffer in the future. BD under sheikh hasina can suppress democracy and distract the masses with drama from their rights. But let's see what happens. http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2015/10/20/bangladesh-development-update-growth-stable-but-eroding-external-competitiveness

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ak4pk

Feb 15, 2016 05:18am

@Imaddi : Hey, hey, hey, slow down. BD is doing well, there are reasons for it. Good foreign investments, lower labour costs, no Talibans and of course the goodwill of the world following the breakup from Pakistan. They have a forty odd years of established market. We need to wish them bigger and better successes. We have a fair few problems on hand, no sooner these are resolved better times will grace us as well. Meantime we need an amicable disposition, a cool head and a bit of patience. And of course I agree with you we need to diversify, it is not prudent to keep all our eggs in one basket. You will also have noticed that the captains of our industries are mostly old fashioned, penny pinching banyas. They tend to retain control of everything because it helps in their fiddling enterprise. Good for them maybe but not for the country. We need to reform our financial institutions so that capital finds its way where it is needed and not restricted to a few chosen destinations.

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