Staff Report

KARACHI: The first textile policy of the country for a period of five years would be unveiled by the newly elected government in coming days, said Zafar Mahmood, Federal Secretary, Ministry of Textile Industry here on Friday.

“Previous government led by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, despite approving the first textile policy, failed to unveil it owing to ending of its constitutional tenure and now it would be announced by the present coalition government,” he said while replying to queries of the representatives of the electronic and the print media after inaugurating the 5th Textile Asia 2008 International exhibition at Karachi Expo Center.

He said previous caretaker government due to its limited nature of the assigned task, lacked required power to announce the much awaited unveiling of the policy which is expected to herald new era of development for the textile industry.

According to him Pakistan is regarded as a major player of the region in the textile sector for its quality products with growing global demand, however, owing to multifarious reasons, its is unable to perform up to its full potential.

Major deterrent factors includes paucity of water faced by the country, utilisation of quality and certified seeds for cotton growing, usage of pesticides to prevent the crop from falling prey to mealybug, American worms and boll worm besides Cotton Leaf Curl Virus (CLCV).

In response to a question he regarded stupendous increase in oil prices in the international market as one of the major deterrent factor which had adverse impact on the economy of the country in general and textile sector in particular.

On account of increase in the oil prices, the cost of production in the textile sector surged sharply, discouraging foreign importers in the process. The Federal Secretary said holding of such exhibitions on regular basis would greatly benefit local buyers by providing them ample opportunity to avail easy opportunity to purchase state-of-the-art machineries within their country.

Replying to another question relating to decline in textile exports he attributed ongoing energy crisis and widespread violence in the country after the assassination of former premier, Benazir Bhutto as major causes, which contributed towards this problem.

Other reasons include utilisation of smuggled Bio-technical cottonseeds in the country which led to the lower cotton yield.

Earlier Zafar Mahmood, alongwith Nail Ersoy, Turkish Commercial Attaché and Dr Khursheed Nizam, President, Ecommerce Gateway inaugurated the exhibition.

A number of foreign delegates from China, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, and UK were also present at the inauguration.

The Exhibition is covering 12,000 sqm where 132 foreign & domestic exhibitors are representing more than 500 international brands. Some 273 foreign Delegates from more than 27 countries are attending the Textile Asia Exhibition.

The exhibition encompasses all the major industries including textile machinery, garment machinery, weaving machinery, embroidery machinery, knitwear machinery and accessories.