Chairman All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma), Gohar Ejaz called on Federal Textile Minister, Makhdoom Shahab-ud-Din on Monday and apprised him of the association's initiatives for the textile industry to achieve $25 billion exports by 2014-15.
He said presence of Makhdoom Shahab-ud-Din, a seasoned parliamentarian with sound financial expertise and strong agriculture background, would help textile industry grow and meet export targets besides generating employment in the country.
Ejaz told the federal minister that Aptma has already proposed five key initiatives to the government as 'way forward'. These initiatives include revamping agriculture research for increase in cotton productivity, 24/7 energy supply, zero rating-regime for textile value chain without hassle of refunds' accumulation, competitive interest regime and public private partnership for market access.
He said that textile industry is fully confident in achieving industry growth and export targets set under the first ever five-year textile policy, and hoped that the minister, with sound agriculture background would be able to comprehend problems of the industry and realise his vision of growth for the sector.
Chairman Aptma appreciated President Asif Ali Zardari for owning the issues of textile industry, declaring 2011 as the year of textile and activating bureaucracy to follow the Aptma's way forward in letter and spirit. He expressed satisfaction over the implementation of free market mechanism in the country and pointed out that the resultant benefits are directly passed to the rural economy, industry and national exchequer, as the textile industry is buoyant to achieve $14 billion record textile exports this year.
Expressing his views, Makhdoom Shahab-ud-Din praised the pro-active role of Aptma and agreed on the joint initiates to overcome issues relating to energy security, cotton productivity. He also assured to provide full support to textile industry for further investments at competitive interest rates.