Chairman, Pakistan Leather Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (Plgmea) Chaudary Ahmed Zulfikar Hayat has expressed his surprise and resentment on excluding the leather garment industry from the trade policy 2006-07.
He said that leather garment industry is in a very gloomy situation due to various reasons. The leather industry as a whole has been completely omitted from the incentives of textile policy 2006-07.
A delegation of Plgmea had held a meeting with secretary commerce a few days ago in which assurances were given to give due support to the industry. Plgmea delegation had also met the secretary to prime minister for granting R&D support to the leather garments industry last month and a subsequent meeting was held earlier this month but the government approved R&D for the leather footwear industry which is a very small sub-sector of leather industry.
Zulfikar stressed that the price of raw materials have gone up and the prices of products in the international market are very low due to competition from China, India, Turkey etc. Manufacturing costs in Pakistan have gone up due to utility bills and fuel charges.
He justified that research and development is essential for the leather garments and leather goods industry to face the price competition from low cost countries like China. Plgmea has been pleading its case for R&D support to the industry for more than one year. Pakistani exporters are besieged with rising costs and find it difficult to compete on cost basis. Main problem of leather garment exporters is similar to those of textile garment exporters. Trade policy allowed R&D support for the fabric and textiles along with textile garments but the high value added sector of leather garments was denied this incentive.-PR
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