Central Chairman of Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PHMA) Shahzad Azam Khan has said the benefits of GSP Plus can only be harvested by maximum value-addition in finished products rather than exporting only raw materials, therefore value-added textile sectors should be provided more support in production processes in this regard.
Usman Jawaad, Zonal Chairman of PHMA, asked the government to appreciate the role of value-added apparel export sector for its potential to harvest maximum benefits of GSP Plus and providing mass employment to the jobless population of the country.
He further said that GSP window had opened tremendous opportunities by way of inflow of abundant export orders which the industry would not be able to execute if gas was not provided particularly to textile processing units. Suspension of gas supply would lead to mass unemployment at textile hubs like Faisalabad, Lahore, Sialkot and Multan together with massive cut in export earnings, he added.
He said the country could not afford drastic reduction in foreign exchange earnings and unemployment of labour which could create political and social problems for the country that was already facing law and order situation and security threats.
He went on to saying that knitwear export industry was adding manifold value to basic commodities like raw cotton and yarn and it alone fetched foreign exchange of more than two billion dollars for the country which was highest of all, but was being ignored by depriving of gas supply.
Shahzad said exporters of apparel products, most of them SMEs, were the most effective and instrumental towards providing jobs to the youth including the female workers and also in export earnings, therefore, they should not be deprived of gas supply for their production requirements.
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