ISLAMABAD, Oct 27: The federal government has decided to offer rebates to the polyester exporters in view of a drastic 80 to 90 per cent decline in exports of this product during the first quarter of current fiscal year.
Federal Minister for Commerce and Industries Abdul Razak Dawood told Dawn after the meeting of Federal Export Board (FTB) here on Saturday that export of this product has reduced by 80-90 per cent since July this year and “we would give rebates to the exporter so that they could cope with the situation. He did not give details of such rebate.
He said that he would be leading a business delegation to China during the last week of next month. The business delegation would seek better market place for Pakistani grey cloth, yarn and polyester fibre. He said that a $200 million credit line extended by China recently would be utilized for the import of textile machinery.
The official spokesman and senior joint secretary of the ministry of industries Shakeel Ahmad told Dawn that a presentation by the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) about the impact of post-September 11 situation on Pakistani exports could not take place because the minister had to leave for a meeting at the finance ministry.
When asked about the size of expected decline in textile exports, Shakeel said that these details were being worked out, and no final figure has emerged as yet.
Earlier, the commerce minister told reporters that the FTB meeting was a routine quarterly event to review the textile sector. “Today we discussed world textile situation and local scenario,” he told a reporter.
An official statement said that the minister told the participants that government was making all out efforts to boost textile exports and further access to the international markets.
The minister also briefed the meeting about his recent visit to different countries including the US and European Union and discussions for enhancing textile quota for Pakistani exports, and said that a number of countries had assured to enhance textile quota from Pakistan.
The minister asked the exporters and manufacturers to take advantage of quota increase and produce quality textile goods to benefit so that Pakistan could attain a position in international markets because of its standards.
He said increase in textile quota by 15 per cent by different countries would help mitigate to some extent the negative impact of current geo-political crisis.
He said that business activities in the country were continuing as normal and asked the exporters to accelerate their efforts for exploiting export potential in their respective sectors.
A participants said that most of the earlier part of the meeting was consumed by the commerce minister’s briefings about his recent visits abroad.
The minister when asked about the export loss due to US- Afghan crisis said that he had given an estimate of $1.4 billion a couple of days ago and he had nothing to add now on that account. The minister said that $200 million credit line extended by China would be used for the import of textile machinery.
Around six major issues were on the agenda but some of them could not be discussed. The agenda items included: (i) contamination-free cotton exports, (ii) impact of post-September 11 events on textile sector, (iii) world cotton prices in the overall scenario and its impact viz-a-viz Pakistani cotton exports and depreciation of dollar, (iv) the overall cotton crop at home and its lifting by exporters and Trading Corporation of Pakistan besides local prices, (v) arranging a top-level business delegation to China, (vi) implementation status of government’s Textile Vision 2005.