At last a Textile Machinery Manufacturers & Suppliers Association of Pakistan has been formed to promote local manufacturing. The Assocition was launched at Igitax held a few months back at Expo Centre, Karachi.

The Textile Machinery Manufacturers & Suppliers Association of Pakistan (TEXMAP) with office at Karachi is headed by Abbas Mooraj of Nazer & Co as its President for the interim period.

According to various sources well over 600 units can induced to become members. However, more than half of these are small, some even very small, units - with no more than a workshop.

This leaves less than half who can be said to have large stakes in textile machinery making, it is this category which TEXMAP organisers are counting on Abbas Mooraj and like minded people hope to convince their community as also the government of a two pronged strategy to establish Pakistan as a textile machinery country rather then remain only importers.

We are the founding members and was involved in the preparation of a detailed paper on the subject and was the master of ceremony at the gathering where TEXMAP was launched.

Being a member of the Federal Textile Board's Task Force set up to streamline JV proposals and my over 30 years association with textile machinery I have a passion to see Pakistan become self-sufficient or at least gain some measure of activity in textile machinery manufacturing.

Our engineering part is not in equilibrium with our textile industry in general. Pakistan is a big name in textile production but stands no where in the world when it comes to textile machinery manufacturing.

Very few machines and components are locally manufactured. We rely heavily on imports. We plan to begin by surveying the facilities of our members and evaluating their respective potential.

We then intend to advise them about specializing in items that most suit their conditions and skills. And when we are satisfied that a component made in Pakistan is as good as it could be made any where in the world, we will ask the authorities for due protection against imports.

I am of the view that a nation that can become, starting from the scratch, a nuclear power within years, why can't it achieve self sufficiency in manufacturing textile machinery.

People talk of the fate of the two units of Textile Machinery Corporation set up by PIDC established in the 19070s. Both the units, Spinnig and Winding. were closed down. I think that It was not a failure of the concept. It was just a poor effort.

The natural corollary is that will it work this time. Where there is a will there is a way. With less than eight months to go for 2005, we are in a do or die situation. It has to be done right this time.

But how can suppliers have the same vision as the manufacturers. Foreign manufacturers would never like to see Pakistan become machinery manufacturers as they have a big hold. We see a clear clash of interests.

It may not be in the interest of foreign manufacturers to see Pakistan's textile engineering industry grow, develop and improve to cope with domestic demand. But this is only a short term objective.

They will not let us move ahead till we keep showing our weakness, inability and lack of commitment. Once we effectively demonstrate that we can do it, as we did in nuclear engineering, you will see foreign manufacturers rushing in to form joint ventures in Pakistan.

Rather than competing amongst ourselves in an unhealthy way in a limited field we would like to see small manufacturers to take up and develop their skills for making and mastering different components and form a large 'vendor base' for the bigger ventures to take up assembling plants independently.

Doing is always more difficult than saying but it is possible and practical. Tell me, why it cant be done? We will have problems in ensuring quality of output of these small manufacturers so as to gain a meaningful effort for achieving the goals.

Dreaming is the first step, trying is the second and achieving is the destiny. Rather than running after every thing (in a short list of items) it will be easier and more sensible for the small manufacturers to pick an item or two from a long list of items, specialise in that and go after customers of that item. This will give each one plenty.

We will have to do what ever it takes to meet the international standards. But it will be much easier than to bleed each other yellow because of competition being severely confined to just a few items.

All they need is protection against import of similar items as soon as they achieve the desired quality standards. We see no problem for the government in pursuing this line.

I hope to see 'joint venture culture' taking roots in manufacturing hi-tech small components of various textile machines. This will broaden the vendor base in Pakistan and also pave the way for bigger and composite ventures in the field of manufacturing capital textile machinery in Pakistan.

The environment in Pakistan is conducive to attract joint ventures. I can say it being a member of the committee formed by the Federal Textile Board's task force for attracting joint ventures in Pakistan. It may not be perfect at the moment, but it is not too bad either.

The government is conscious and committed to make it conducive for foreign investors. The government's response is likely to be positive. Sincerity and reason do always prevail in the end. So will it be in our case. This simple and practical approach shall succeed.

We should have achieved self sufficiency in textile engineering at least thirty years ago if not earlier. Without pointing fingers towards any one regime, I must concede that we are all responsible for this negligence. Luckily the present government appears conscious of this and is doing every thing possible to move fast to meet post 2005 challenges.

There is no Textile Ministry in Pakistan and a Pakistan Textile Council to regulate the textile profession in the country. It is very much in the national interest to have a textile ministry and a textile council.

Had there been such a council and/or ministry in place from day one, we would have become self-sufficient in many kinds of textile machinery and parts manufacturing.

The principal reason of our textile machinery doing so poorly in quantity as well as quality is the lack of know-how, lack of commitment on part of manufacturers, lack of support from local buyers and above all, a lot of anomalies in government policies that make hi-tech textile engineering a difficult, if not an impossible proposition in Pakistan.

The quality of technical know how available in the country in textile machinery manufacturing sector is elementary, at best. However, there is a lot of talent to be exploited and put to good use.

About the prospects of technology transfer to Pakistan from the developed world, no one wants a joint venture outside his homeland unless there is real technical potential and financial feasibility in the country asking for joint venture, and unless there is a real danger of the original manufacturer losing a big market without going into a joint venture with some one.

So to attract joint ventures in Pakistan (for textile engineering), we need to raise standards of our engineering to a certain level and then make it feasible for the probable joint venture partners to invest in Pakistan.

The WTO and SAFTA (South Asian Free Trade Area) being round the corner hard times are no doubt ahead, and there is very little time to prepare to meet the challenges. Many of us seem to be taking it easy. They seem to be suffering from a kind of 'Khush Fehmi' about the post 2005 era.

Briefly, we need to do some thing about bringing our fuel, labor and energy costs (in short, our conversion costs) i.e. to bring it at a level with those prevailing in India and China. If we want to remain in the field and meet the competition.