A weakening domestic economy, poor law and order situation, political uncertainty and Pakistan's tarnished image abroad all resulted in the decline of the country's exports, especially its textile share on the world market. "Cuts in gas and electricity supply have badly affected towel manufacturing, resulting in a downturn of its export," says Chairman of Towel Manufacturers Association of Pakistan (TMA), Mehtabuddin Chawla.
During a discussion with newsmen at Karachi Press Club on Saturday, the leading exporter believed that the weakness of the local currency against US dollar could be used as an opportunity if the government increased its support to industries. "We can easily double the quantum of total exports in two years, notwithstanding the weakness of Pakistani rupee against the US dollar, if the government ensures uninterrupted supplies of gas, electricity and water to manufacturing units," he maintained.
Predicting that towel exports would stagnate this fiscal year, he said that his prognosis was based on a number of reasons, adding that towel exports would not pick up this year too because of a continued decline in manufacturing". He claimed that the towel industry received huge buying orders from world markets this year but several manufacturing units declined to take up lucrative offers because of a lack of capacity. "I too have refused several foreign orders because I cannot deliver the orders on time because of manufacturing constraints," he insisted.
Highlighting the growth of Bangladesh's textile exports, the TMA chairman said: "The country (Bangladesh) is a non-cotton producing country, but helped its textile sector touch $20 billion export mark," he says. Pakistan, he said, was a cotton-producing nation with a surplus but "is unable to ensure growth of its textile export". He said: "Even the towel exports may not go beyond $1.4 billion this fiscal year." Chawla estimated that the country's total textile export might decline to $12 billion this fiscal year, down from $14 billion just a year ago because of electricity and gas outages. "Power and gas cuts have plagued the manufacturing process," he says.
Urging the government to chalk out a rational plan to support national economy, he suggested that a policy of rapid industrialisation would boost prospects of employment. "Once industries start to be set up, 65 percent of the country's youth will be able to find jobs at home and support the domestic economy, besides boosting export sectors' global market share," he maintained.
According to him, the government had failed to meet conditions laid down in WTO deal in 1995 with a 10-year deadline for the country to improve its industrial growth to compete without a quota regime, Chawla said. "If Pakistan's government had worked on meeting WTO conditions before the abolishment of the quota regime and free market trade, our exports would now have been far higher," he maintained, insisting that the country failed to capitalise on a key opportunity. Similarly, he said, the country had so far been unable to take a full advantage of GSP regime offered by the EU to Pakistan, because key export-oriented sectors failed to find power and gas supplies to increase output.
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