LAHORE, Jan 29: Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda) will finalize its plan for technological upgradation of powerlooms by April this year by launching a “Programme Financing Scheme” for the looms for replacing the existing technology.

The decision was taken at a meeting held at the Smeda office here on Tuesday with federal industries and production secretary Akram Shaikh in the chair.

Others who attended the meeting included Smeda chief executive Iqbal Mustafa, textile commissioner Shahid Raza, Punjab SME chief Nasir Durrani, and a central bank official. A number of powerloom owners also participated in the meeting, representing the private sector.

The Powerlooms Association said the existing interest rates on the bank borrowings “discouraged technological upgradation of the looms”. The Smeda would approach the central bank for providing a special package for the sector if its financial analysis found it “unviable to undertake technological replacement” at the existing cost of credit.

The major objective of formulating the strategy is to “network between the powerloom sector, banks and government ministries and agencies to help the industry get low cost loans for technological upgradation”.

Some 225,000 powerlooms are installed in the country producing roughly around 54 per cent of 4.40 billion square meter of fabric made in the organized and unorganized sectors every year.

It is significant to mention here that some 125,000 powerlooms are installed in Faisalabad alone.

The rest of them are clustered mainly in Karachi, Multan, Kasur and Jhang. Almost all powerlooms are installed in the unorganized sector. It is believed that some 10 per cent powerlooms have already been replaced with auto looms in the recent years.