PTEA chief sees industrial recession in textile sector: over $800 million export target decline

The shortfall of $800 million in export target of preceding year has triggered apprehensions of industrial recession, closure of thousands of textile exporting units, huge unemployment and worsening of law and order situation in the country. This was stated by Pakistan Textile Exporters Association (PTEA) Chairman Rana Arif Tauseef, while talking to newsmen here on Thursday.
Regarding the decline in exports, he said: "Over the last six months we were consistently warning the government of the decline, which had set in the exports sector but the quarters concerned did not take our warning seriously and remained content with comparative increase of exports over the last year figures."
He said that the Association had pointed out that exports of fabrics which were 302 million sq. meters in July 2005 had declined to 182 million sq. meters in January 2006 and value-wise registered a steep fall from $207 million to $154 million in the same period.
He also said that it had timely pin-pointed that the exports of textile made-ups had declined by 14.35 percent, art silk synthetic fabrics by 38.17 percent and in other textiles by 46.65 percent from July 2005 to February 2006 period.
Along with these bitter facts, it had also pinpointed the reasons for this sharp decrease in exports, he said, and added that the major reasons were the increase in cost of production, hike in prices of utilities, and petroleum products.
Rana Tauseef also said that the Association had also underlined the need for providing a level-playing field to exporters vis-à-vis the regional exporters of Bangladesh, India and China. The prices of Pakistani goods in the international market were costlier compared to these regional countries, he added.
The exporters in Bangladesh, India and China were having an edge over Pakistani exporters, as the rates of gas, electricity, wages and bank mark-up were lower in these countries than Pakistan.
The PTEA chief lamented that the government did not take our warnings seriously and no remedial measures were set in motion resultantly the export target of $17 billion has fallen short by $800 million and the country has collected only $16.2 billion in exports in the past year.
Rana Tauseef also pointed out that industry and exports were the backbone of Pakistani economy; contributing 64 percent to national economy, 75 percent to exports, while 48 percent employment is linked with textile industry.
He warned that if the government even now fails to provide a level playing field to exporters in international market and stability to textile industrial sector the whole $5 billion investment will go down the drain, thousands of industrial units would be forced to shut down, millions of labours would be rendered jobless, law and order situation would take an ugly turn, exports would collapse, national economy would suffer irreparable loss and Pakistani exporters would lose foreign markets.