ISLAMABAD, March 18: The Ministry of Textile Industry has remained ineffective even after eight months of its creation due to bureaucratic red-tape and indifferent attitude of the government towards the $8 billion export-oriented industry which accounts for over 70 per cent of the total exports of the country. Informed sources told Dawn that the government had created a separate ministry in August last to devise policies and run the textile industry by clubbing different institutes running under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The sources said the bureaucratic red-tape has been hampering the process to create posts for the newly-established ministry. The ministry is running without a full-fledged secretary and additional secretary. An acting secretary was appointed to run the affairs of the ministry for a few months, who was later transferred to another ministry, the sources said.

Currently four officers — a joint secretary, two deputy secretaries and a section officer — are running all the affairs of the ministry who are supposed to formulate policies for the textile industry to cope with the emerging textile-related issues and challenges after the abolition of textile quota since January 1, 2005, particularly to compete with the products of India and China in the international market.

The new ministry besides, a range of issues was supposed to prepare a work plan for the establishment of textile city project in Karachi, announced in the trade policy of 2004-05.

Similarly, the textile industry will have to make plans for the establishment of garment cities one each in Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad. The government has also placed around 11 training institutes under the control of the new ministry. All these were earlier placed under the ministry of commerce.

It is need of the time that the government should post relevant specialized people at the ministry for implementing all these trade initiatives to increase textile exports.

When contacted Textiles Industry Minister Mushtaq Ali Cheema told Dawn that he was hopeful to get a full-fledge team soon for running the affairs of the ministry. He admitted that working in the government sector was a bit slow as compared to the private sector.

Mr Cheema said the ministry would take care of all the issues confronting textile industry from seed cotton, to ginning, to spinning, to fabric, to processing and export.

The sources said that on the contrary, other cotton growing- countries have witnessed robust growth, mainly due to reorganization and modernization of the industry. Even non-cotton countries such as Sir Lanka and Mexico were doing well through seller-buyer alliance.

The textile ministry in India has been assigned the responsibilities of framing policy and coordination for industries like man-made fibre/filament yarn, cotton textile, jute, silk and silk textile, wool and woollen industry, export promotion, planning and economic analysis, integrated finance matters, and information technology.

Similarly China in 2001 integrated 22 specialised industrial associations and 10 former service institutes into China National Textile Industry Council (CNTIC). It focuses on industrial consulting department, marketing department and the information department for establishing the industries networking system, information consulting, e-commerce platforms, and ERP projects for enterprises.

According to the sources, if the government did not give attention to this sector, Pakistan’s share in textile export would remain shrink particularly in the post-WTO era as there would be more compelling conditions.