A 50-acre new garment city built on vertical linear concept equipped with the state-of-the-art machinery and fulfilling social compliance requirements is being set up in Faisalabad to usher in Pakistani textile sector into WTO era.
This was stated by Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) Vice Chairman Abid Javed Akbar, while addressing stakeholders representatives here on Tuesday.
The new garment city sponsored by the federal government is aimed to meet two objectives, price competitiveness and value addition, for bracing tough open competition in post-quota global scenario, he said.
Elaborating the vertical linear building concept, EPB Director-General Ms Rukhsana Shah said the existing concept of single storey buildings accommodating different manufacturing processes had become obsolete and outdated, as it involved wastage of time, energy, and resources.
New vertical linear concept envisaged high rise building with each manufacturing process at each floor, she said, adding even administrative block, display centre, and conference hall could be accommodated on ground-floor of 20,000 to 30,000 meters, while manufacturing sectors, knitting, weaving, dyeing, printing, stitching, etc could be housed in upper floor.
Abid Javed Akbar said the planned garment city was one of the three cities sanctioned by the federal government and out of Rs 1.42 billion, total funds nearly Rs 400 million would be allocated for this new garment city.
He said that different sites for the proposed city were under consideration, adding he has visited the two sites in Faisalabad, Lahore Expressway and Khurrainwala - Jaranwala Road as preliminary proposals. However, final decision in this regard would be taken by the steering committee to be constituted shortly.
He said he was highly impressed by the enthusiasm, keenness, and interest being showed by Faisalabad industry and trade in preparing themselves for the WTO regime.
"This has really inspired me with positive hope that we would be able to face the new scenario unfolding in 2005," he said.
The EPB vice chairman also spoke at length on concept of productivity and components thereof. He gave a comparative view of the productivity in Korea, Taiwan and China vis-à-vis Pakistan.
He emphasised the need for equipping the exporting units in the proposed city to undertake measures for social compliance and labour regulations required by the buyers for maintenance of quality standards of export goods, saying all these factors were components of value-addition required for sheer survival in the new world trade order.
The exporting units in the garment city would also have water treatment plants and training institutes to meet local requirements, he added.
The meeting was also addressed by Dr Khurram Tariq, chairman, Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers Association; Asim Khurshid, vice chairman, Chamber of Commerce.
Shahid Nazir, a garment exporter, spelled out problems confronting the knit exporters. Apcea Chairman Ahmad Kamal welcomed the participants.
Abid Javed Akbar asked the representatives of stakeholders to constitute steering committee to push the project for speedy implementation.
The members proposed the EPB vice chairman to head the committee, and suggested names of 12-man representatives for the steering committee, which will meet next month for further action.