Textile industry is seriously considering renewable energy options to meet energy requirements and one delegation of leading textile millers is set to fly to Malaysia in second week of May to attend EU-Asia Biomass Best Practices and Business Partnering Conference 2012.
The textile delegation will attend the conference and interact with international suppliers of biomass technology and international organisations for technical co-operation to understand the possibilities of opting for renewable energy in Pakistan. The conference will act as the focal point for assembly of local and regional biomass stakeholders. It will also bring together current and future producers of bioenergy and bio-based products with biomass traders, technology providers, equipment manufacturers, investors, researchers and policy makers.
The conference will cover best practices and successful case studies of biomass utilisation in the areas of bioenergy, biofertilizers, high value chemicals and biofuels, eco-products and green building materials. Pakistan is facing acute shortage of electricity and gas, leaving the textile exports in lurch due to capacity closures. There is a worrisome decline in textile exports both in value (22 percent) and quantity terms in March 2012 against the corresponding period. In quantitative terms, exports are down 43 percent in cotton cloth, 33 percent in knitwear, 30 percent in bed wear, 35 percent in readymade garments and 22 percent in towel. This drastic decline in textile exports is being attributed to the non-availability of energy, both electricity and gas, coupled with high interest rates which have been kept unchanged in recently announced Monetary Policy Statement of State Bank of Pakistan.
This situation is eroding the viability of textile industry fast resulting into likely large scale bankruptcies and infection ratio of textile industry advances. It has further exposed Pakistan textile industry to risks oozing out of normalisation of trade with India arrangements likely to trigger further with the start of 2013.
Therefore, the textile industry is desperately looking for initiatives to meet energy requirements by all possible means and ways. APTMA has also set up Sustainable Production Centre in collaboration with a German organisation GIZ to recycle production residues besides caring for environment, conservation of energy, water, corporate social responsibility and gender balance. It may be noted that Pakistan is full of biomass resources including cotton sticks, corn-cops, rice husk, municipal waste, industrial waste and wheat straws etc.
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