ISLAMABAD, June 14: The National Assembly was told on Saturday that the trade policy for 2008-09 was being formulated and would be announced next month.

Minister for Textile and Industry Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar informed the house in a written reply that all stakeholders were being consulted for formulating proposals for the policy.

He said that major initiatives, including hiring of technologists from abroad, payment for services by local and foreign fashion designers, technology up gradation, support for opening of export offices abroad by renowned textile manufacturers and setting up of retail outlets abroad by selected companies, would be included in the policy which was aimed at increasing export of textile products.

He said the government had already taken some steps for the promotion of the textile industry.

He said that his ministry would launch a well-organised human resource programme to meet the shortage of skilled textile engineers.

He said that “garment cities” in Faisalabad, Lahore and Karachi were being set up for value added textile products to enhance the export of textile products.

The cotton and synthetic research institutions in the country would be strengthened. Minister for Industries and Production Syed Naveed Qamar said that the estimated cost of the Clean Drinking Water for All (CDWA) project had almost doubled.

Giving reasons for the increase, he said the cost indicated in the PC-1 was on the basis of tentative estimates, while the revised cost had been worked out on the actual basis.

He said that another reason was the increase in the number of union councils which previously were not taken into account. He said the original cost did not include expenditure on operation and maintenance of the water filtration plants for three years.

He said the project was supposed to end by September in NWFP, Fata and Northern Areas while in the Punjab, Azad Kashmir and Islamabad the project would be completed by the end of March 2009.

Answering another question, Mr Qamar said that under ‘One Skill One Village one Product Programme’, 221 projects had been identified. Of these, 50 projects would be executed next year with a focus on benefiting landless peasants, wage earners and women.

He said the products which were catered for in the projects were region-specific hand embroidery work, handloom fabric, carpets, rilli, silver jewellery, ajrak, lacquer work, ceramics and mosaic.

He said that women were primarily involved in region-specific hand embroidery work. The project would be transferred to the cabinet division on July 1, 2008.

Minister for Housing and Works Rehmatullah Kakar said the Pakistan Housing Authority was planning to launch housing schemes for federal government employees to provide houses on their retirement as per the directives of the prime minister.

He said the government was planning to launch schemes for the construction of one million housing units each year. He said that five marla schemes for homeless citizens in rural areas would be initiated.

The minister for education told the house that the Higher Education Commission planned to set up 22 universities in the country in all and funds had been allocated for setting up six universities in the new budget.

The house was informed that the HEC under the National Research Programme for universities allocated research funds to federal government universities in all disciplines, including pharmaceuticals, academic, science and arts, based on peers’ review.

An amount of Rs382.266 million had been allocated for research purposes in these disciplines to 10 federal universities and institutes during the period from 2004-08.