ISLAMABAD, Sept 25: The government has set an annual target of 15 million bales raw cotton production to be achieved in 2004 to meet the challenges of quota free era in 2005.

This was told to a delegation of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) by Commerce Minister Abdul Razak Dawood here on Wednesday.

The minister informed the Aptma that there would be no more permits, licences and sanctions and the industry would have to compete on the basis of quality, productivity and reaching out to the international market.

The government has set seven major challenges to meet before the quotas are eliminated by 2005 under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) regime. These include bringing out new values of cotton to far long and extra large staple for ginning value added industry, (ii) complete restructuring of ginning industry by improving technology, equipment, management and unit size, (iii) production of contamination-free cotton, (iv) expansion of spinning and weaving, (v) restructuring of powerloom particularly of Faisalabad, (vi) introduction of more state of the art furnishing units and (vii) bringing in more players in hosiery, garments and made ups both at the smaller scale and the larger unit level.

The minister told Aptma that the government has removed all bans on import of yarn and cloth to have a free environment to pursue value-added products but it will not in any case interfere in yarn and fabric prices to encourage free flow of investment in any sub-sector of the textile industry.

Razak asked the textile leaders to follow up on the initiatives taken by President General Pervez Musharraf during his dialogue with the leadership in China, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in his recent visits.

A delegation led by privatization minister would be visiting Tunisia to seek free trade agreement (FTA) with that country, the minister said and assured the textile industry that there would be no changes in the basic tariff structure for textile sector except for further reduction in duties for dyes, chemicals and auxiliaries.

The minister deplored that ginning was the weakest link in the country’s textile supply chain which needed to be improved in the next three years.

He said that the government was targeting to increase the share of value added sector to 60 per cent of total textile exports by June 30 next year and appreciated that Pakistan had got 6 per cent share in the world market of bedwear related made ups.

The minister urged the Aptma members to secure future by buying self-space in major markets of the world.