Textile Minister Mushtaq Ali Cheema has said that Pakistan is striving to revive the textile industry and improve its competitiveness in world market.
He said that the Prime Minister, for its revival, has already constituted National Textile Strategy Committee comprising representatives from key ministries, concerned departments and private sector.
Talking to Business Recorder after a meeting with Japanese Ambassador Siji Kogima on textile issues, he said that Pakistan's textile industry has the potential of consuming large quantity of cotton. Due to contamination problem and low produce owing to climatic conditions, shortfall in cotton has to be met from abroad, occasionally.
Commenting on Pakistan's cotton production, the minister said that Pakistan is the fourth largest producer of cotton while it is third largest importer of it in the world at the same time. He added that cotton contamination problem is being duly taken care of by Minfal, which has speeded up its efforts for clean cotton, and the situation has improved a lot.
The minister pointed out that value chain of textile is not balanced. "We have vast setup of spinning industry but weaving sector is limited, which is one of the factors giving rise to huge export of low value yarn". Asked whether the low output of fabrics due to weak fabric sector has any impact on the dyeing industry, he said: "Yes, it is also affected, and is running under-capacity."
On the present low textile export conditions resulting from tough competition from competitors, the minister said that textile exporters have to bear nearly five percent additional cost of manufacturing for marketing their products in the international market.
Speaking about the meeting with the Japanese Ambassador, he said that Japanese are interested to strengthen Pakistan's textile industry for value-added products. They are inclined to help Pakistan increase fabric production and further strengthen its quality. The Japanese Ambassador had shown interest in Pakistani fabrics, which according to him is of high quality.
According to the minister, the Japanese envoy was of the view that Pakistan's textile exports to Japan have decreased, while Japan's textile machinery import by Pakistan has also been reduced. He said that Pakistan is selling its yarn to China, which is exporting fabrics, a high value product to Japan.
The Ambassador suggested that if Pakistan improves its production capacity of fabrics, it could increase its exports of value-added products, which would generate more revenue and also make headway in employment by virtue of increasing its setup.