KARACHI, May 8: Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers Association (PHMA) Chairman M Naqi Bari has said that the government is being misled and misinformed on issues related to the textile industry, which results in confusing and baseless statements made by the policy makers. Their remarks are mostly contrary to ground realities and factual situation.

In a statement issued on Tuesday the PHMA chief said that it was unfortunate that such irresponsible statements did not at all relate to knitwear industry and its exports, which is the most affected textile sector owing to tough competition being faced by it in the world market from the neighbouring countries.

Referring to a recent press statement of State Bank Governor Dr Shamshad Akhtar wherein she stated that textile exporters were allowed debt swaps and new long-term borrowings to the tune of Rs50 billion, Mr Bari said that knitwear industry comprised of small and medium size enterprises and its share in export refinance was minimal because it is mostly run on self-financing and without bank borrowing of any sort.

Similarly, the PHMA chief said that in a recent meeting chairman CBR strongly opposed the government move of extending Rs30 billion to textile industry for the growth of exports. He said the CBR chief based his argument on a report by Gherzi, a foreign consultant, who claimed that cost of inputs, including electricity was the lowest in Pakistan if compared with India, Bangladesh and China.

He said this was ridiculous because it was a well-known fact, which had been time and again proven with statistics to the government by the textile industry and added that “our conversion cost is also higher than Bangladesh by 30 per cent.

He pointed out that the Gherzi report related to spinning and weaving sector and it did not cover whole of textile industry, particularly value-added garment and home textiles. Instead of depending on such consultants, he said, the government should rely on those, who are directly involved in value-addition process.

Bangladesh has already achieved $10 billion mark in exports while Pakistan will touch $4 billion in knit and woven exports by end of current fiscal on June 30, 2007.

Mr Bari was also critical of the ministry of commerce, which has attributed decline in exports of textile goods on poor quality and low value addition thus fetching low price as compared to the competitors. He said this assertion given by the ministry in a presentation to the prime minister is also misleading and totally baseless.

He said knitwear exporting units had invested huge amount in plant and machinery and its quality was being appreciated worldwide with prestigious fashion stores buying such quality products from Pakistan.

The knitwear industry is the highest foreign exchange earner in terms of per pound value of cotton, which is up to $30 per pound. Several of knitwear exporters fetch even higher value by exporting high quality products and the industry is labour intensive with a large number of women workforce.

He pointed out that the Research and Development (R&D) support granted by the government to the industry had been absorbed by inflation, cost escalation and competition from neighbouring countries and it only helped the knitwear industry to survive by retaining its traditional buyers.

He said such statements coming from the policy makers surely sent wrong and negative signals to the buyers in the world market and instead of facilitating trade and industry by removing hurdles, which is their primary objective, a blame game was being played involving the textile industry.

The PHMA sought immediate meeting with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz to apprise him about the factual position for which the association has prepared credible presentation relating to issues and problems affecting knitwear exports and also suggesting pragmatic solution not only to salvage textile industry but also enhance exports to achieve the target.