Textile industry: steps being taken to facilitate private sector, says Shaukat

Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz has said that textile industry is the backbone of our industrial sector and the government is taking a number of steps to facilitate the private sector in improving the quality and competitiveness of their products to enhance the volume of textile exports.
Chairing a meeting of the special committee which has been constituted to develop recommendations to reduce the cost of doing business in textile and clothing sectors, the Prime Minister said that the textile sector has shown substantial development during the last few years, according to a press release.
He said the growth is largely driven by the continuity of government policies, positive macroeconomic indicators, tariff rationalization, removal of sales tax on textile chain, deregulation, lower interest rates, increased market access, public-private partnership programmes and the creation of a hassle free environment by the government.
The Prime Minister said that government will continue to take steps to further develop the textile sector focusing on bridging the skills gap promoting researcher and development activities, facilitating increase in the number of women employees, outsourcing of specialised work and simplification of procedures.
To facilitate value addition in the textile sector he said, world class departments in various disciplines related to textile industry will be set up in three universities.
These departments will have linkages with corresponding foreign departments of high repute, the Prime Minister said.
Zubair Motiwala, a member of the committee in his presentation said that as a result of the government policies, textile sector has consistently witnessed growth during the last six years.
The Prime Minister was informed that Pakistan's textile are poised to achieve US $10 billion exports by June 2006, mainly due to increase in "Value Added Textiles" that have given a new dimension to the export.
The Prime Minister reviewed the proposals submitted by the committee and assured them that government will do all which is required to further develop the textiles sector. The meeting was also attended among others by federal Minister for Textile Industry Mushtaq Ali Cheema Advisor to the Prime Minister on Finance Dr Salman Shah, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Dr M Akram Sheikh and senior officials.