Textile exports for 2009-10 may rise to $11.5 billion with an increase of 15 percent as compared to last year. Textile Industry Secretary Waqar Masood Khan told Business Recorder here on Monday that during the first three months of the current financial year textile exports amounted to a monthly average of $823 million compared to $770 million recorded during first six months of 2009.
He said that last year textile industry was near to achieving $10 billion exports, but its exports for the current year "are expected to be around $11.5 billion", registering 15 percent increase against last year. He said that the key exports of Pakistan, namely textiles, have started showing positive signs with increase in exports of raw cotton and yarn and some value added-cotton subsectors. Most notably, knitwear and hosiery have shown a rising trend.
He said that in the months ahead, this trend was most likely to improve because businessmen in all subsectors are reporting increasing orders and are expecting full capacity utilisation. The rise in orders of textile machinery are also indicative of the positive sentiment prevailing in the sector.
The Textiles Secretary said that the textile policy has contributed significantly in spurring the current momentum. The key initiatives adopted under the policy have already been put in place. These include mark-up support of 2.5 percent in export refinancing, 5 percent support in all long-term loans of the industry, drawback of local taxes and levies, reimbursement of regulatory costs of EOBI, and social security for women and handicapped employees of textiles sector and duty-free imports of textiles machinery.
He said that hike in prices of yarn and cotton yarn has compelled the Ministry to take some action to arrest the rising prices of cotton and cotton yarn, which is hurting exports of value-added apparel sector.
He said that the Ministry of Textile Industry has also expressed concerns over the rising cotton and cotton yarn prices and a meeting of textile stakeholders was held to evolve a strategy to provide relief to the entire sector from soaring input costs. Representatives of APTMA, PHMA, PRGMEA, APTPMA, TMA, Pakistan denim exporters association, Pakistan Bedwear Exporters Association, Karachi Cotton Association, Pakistan Cotton Fashion Apparel Exporters and all other stakeholders participated in the meting to develop a long-term policy for stable prices of cotton and cotton yarn. To overcome the rising exports of yarn and cotton yarn, it was decided in the meeting to meet domestic demand first, Waqar added.