Garment exporters have demanded of the Federal government to establish garment industrial parks in every industrial city of the country to augment export by 70 percent as compared to current export ratio.
"Each garment textile park should be based on at least 50 to 100 units, which will help the small enterprises of the readymade garment sector ensure 100 percent productivity," they said.
They suggested that the government should follow the Singaporean model where several garment industrial parks had been developed, adding that these parks would help increase production and export of readymade products manifold.
It would also help generate skilled labour and decrease cost of production, which was on the rise in the country due to several reasons, including high electricity, fuel and gas tariffs, they added.
"Myanmar, Singapore and Vietnam are the prime examples of the garment industrial parks where hundred of thousands units of small enterprises are manufacturing garment products," said Central Chairman of Pakistan Readymade Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (Prgmea) Ijaz Khokhar.
He observed that small enterprises were reluctant to produce garments by 100 percent due to lack of investment in this sector and proper infrastructure, which had left them on the lower side of production.
He said that more than 60 percent of the textile garment sector was based on small and medium enterprises, which needed proper support from government to survive in the face of increasing cost of business.
"Establishment of the garment industrial parks will ensure 70 percent increase in export as compared to the current export figure, besides the paving way for new investment," he remarked.
He said the government should avoid establishing huge industrial cities in the country and instead focus on setting up garment parks. He added that establishment of garment parks would help save huge expenditures on industrial cities, saying that such cities did not have spaces for small enterprises, which was a huge setback to this industry.
Huge garment production was missed every year owing to improper infrastructure and lack of government support to small units of the industry, he said, and added that Bangladesh and India were far ahead in garment production and export.
Ijaz said the government could rent out these proposed parks to small and medium enterprises, which would help it generate revenue, besides providing the unproductive section of the industries with infrastructure and related facilities.
He thanked Prime Minster Shaukat Aziz for continuing research and development assistance to textile garment sector till 2008, adding that this move would aggrandise garment export by 15 percent.
He said readymade garment exports was declined by about 15 percent due recent rains and unavailability of labour and frequent load shedding. Besides, a large number of labourers, panicked by cyclone threat, left Karachi for their native villages, he pointed out.
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