FAISALABAD, Dec 24: Federal Minister for Textile Industry Ch Mushtaq Ali Cheema has stressed for a natural balance between all segments of textile sector to ensure its systematic and scientific growth and achieve the ultimate objective of value addition.

He was addressing leading businessmen of the city during his visit to the Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) on Saturday. He said that the share of textiles in exports was 59 per cent and the government was trying its best to resolve problems of this sector on priority basis.

He particularly mentioned the WTO challenges and said that unnecessary protectionism was a major hurdle towards free trade economy.

“No doubt it has helped developing countries to improve their economies but at the same time it has some negative impacts,” he added. In this connection, he mentioned knitwear sector and said that Pakistan was the biggest quota holder of the world, but its growth remained stagnant and it was now facing problems in competing in international markets in spite of getting 6 per cent Research and Development (R&D) subsidy.

He also mentioned recent WTO Ministerial held in Hong Kong and said that developed countries had agreed to withdraw subsidies on agriculture. “This is a major development and will help strengthen our agriculture sector on sound footings in addition to arresting fast increasing ratio of poverty”, he added.

He said that anti-dumping issue was on top of the government agenda. The government had taken up this issue at highest level and hoped that it would be resolved very soon.

The minister said that 85 per cent population in Pakistan was still directly or indirectly related with agriculture and the government was trying its best to improve their living standards.

“The textile ministry is preparing a comparative statement of Pakistan and other south Asian rivals”, he said and added that it would give the details of production, productivity, efficiency, quality and cost of inputs etc.

“This statement will also be presented to the prime minister and federal cabinet in addition to discussing it with concerned stakeholders”, he said and assured that the government would try to provide a level-playing field to Pakistani exporters to compete with the textile competitors.

About the grading of yarn, the minister said that Faisalabad yarn was squeezing only because of various reasons. He suggested a committee comprising yarn merchants, Aptpma and power-loom owners to run its affairs in a transparent manner.

He assured that the government was also focusing on the ancillary industry to enabling it to give full support to the textile sector.

About road links, he said that preparations were underway to start work on M-4. It would not only help in the speedy transportation of exportable surplus but also bring prosperity in the under-developed areas.

He said that sales tax had been withdrawn on exportable goods and now a strategy was being worked out to delete ST from gas and electricity consumed by the textile and textile processing units.

Earlier, FCCI president Mian Muhammad Hanif pinpointed the problems being confronted by the traders and industrialists. He also presented various proposals for the uplift of Faisalabad city.—APP