Caretaker Commerce Minister Shahzada Alam Monoo said on Tuesday the textile sector was showing improvement and as a result, the country was expected to achieve 18 billion-dollar export mark set for the current financial year.
Speaking at a reception, hosted by the zonal office of the Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI), Monoo said Benazir Bhutto's assassination had left negative impact on the country's economy. The gas and electricity shortage further deteriorated the situation and the entire industry had to suffer a lot, he added. However, the government was fully alive with the energy shortage issue, which would be resolved through collective efforts by the government as well as business community, he said. Because of mushroom growth of spinning and weaving mills in the country, he said the entire textile sector was confronting with manifold problems.
Instead of focusing on home-textile, garment manufacturing and value-added industries, our industrialists went on establishing spinning mills and weaving mills in the past, which now had become economically unviable, he maintained.
Apart from this, we failed to improve the cotton quality, while its production was restricted to 15.5 million bales, he said, and referred to India, which had shifted its focus on BT cotton (biotechnical cotton) and its dependence on BT cotton had now been increased to 80 percent.
"Since we are far behind India in developing cotton quality, we should, therefore, give priority to grow BT cotton", he added. Later, he told reporters that there was no need to worry about increasing trade deficit. Many countries in the world were also facing huge trade deficit, but they were narrowing the gap by enhancing their exports, he said.
Last year, Pakistan's imports remained 30 billion dollars against the total exports of US 17 billion dollars and the gap was filled in by overseas remittance worth 5.5 billion dollars and foreign directive investment (FDI) to the tune of 8.5 billion dollars. As such, the trade deficit was reduced to only five billion dollars and "we can overcome the deficit issue by increasing our exports," he said.
Monoo said the government was focusing on power projects and launched Neelam Hydro Project, which would be completed in next six years. "Dams are the main sources of cheap energy, but all big projects are politicised in the past," he added.
He asked the upcoming government of Pakistan Peoples Party and Pakistan Muslim League (N) to continue existing economic policies and resolve energy issue on priority basis. About the increase in import bill, he said that it was because of huge imports of luxury items. "Any country cannot restrict luxury items import because of implementation of World Trade Organisation (WTO), thus we should discourage the use of luxurious items to curtail import bill.
Saarc Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vice-President Iftikhar Ali Malik, FPCCI Vice-President Azhar Saeed Butt, former FPCCI president Jamil Mahboob Magoon and other office-bearers were also present on the occasion.