Textile sector, the main foreign exchange earner of Pakistan, is facing host of problems for which it has to import 1000 MW electricity from Iran under an agreement to be implemented from 2013-14, informed sources in Textile Ministry told Business Recorder here on Friday.
Pakistan is already facing a shortfall of 2500 MW electricity and till 2010, this shortfall will increase to 5000 MW. So to fulfil the domestic requirements of electricity, the country will have to import electricity from Iran at three times higher tariff if compared with the current electricity tariff in the country.
Bangladesh, the biggest competitor of Pakistan in textile export products, has 2000 MW electricity in surplus. So, the supply of electricity there is much more than its demand, while Pakistan is pre-occupied with many problems like power crisis, exorbitant raw material cost, petroleum problems and an increase in the labour wages.
The textile industry of Bangladesh has one-window operation system, while in Pakistan, one has to run from the pillar to post to solve the textile-related problems. The cheap skilled labour and 50 percent free gas tariff in Bangladesh is one of the attractive factors of its textile industry, forcing most of our textile industrialists to shift their industry to Bangladesh.
The competition in the international market is getting increased by each passing day. So, the government has offered China to set up industries in the proposed garment cities in Faisalabad, Lahore and Karachi under the free trade agreement (FTA). China is the world's major exporter of textile products and its exports stood at 161 billion dollars in 2007.