Pakistan, an attractive market for textile machinery
manufacturers all over the world, has become a focal point of the suppliers in
view of the massive Balancing-Modernization-Replacement (BMR) to take place
under "Textile Vision 2005" programme jointly launched by the
government and public sector of the country.
Under the BMR plan an investment worth Rs333 billion has to
take place by the year 2005. In order to market their products, trade
delegations of textile machinery producers from France, Switzerland, Germany,
Japan and India are frequently visiting Pakistan as a part of their marketing
plans.
A textile delegation had visited Pakistan 10 days ago while
another is due next week. Similarly French delegation visited Pakistan to
explore the market and they are coming again to display their machinery in
Faisalabad next week.
Italian Trade Commission recently established by the Italian
embassy in Pakistan also arranged a symposium on "Italian Textile Machinery
and Technology" in Karachi on April 10 and Lahore on April 12. The
symposium was attended by a trade delegation of Italian Association of Textile
manufacturers from their country. The representatives from All Pakistan Textile
Mills Association (APTMA) including its Chief Executive Khalid Amin, Textile
Commissioner Mohammad Idrees and prominent textile industrialists attended the
seminar among others from Pakistan industry.
Speaking on the occasion Khalid Amin said that textile
industry plays an important role in Pakistan's economy. The textile industry not
only has to continue this role but also has to accomplish higher targets by
increasing the exports from $5 billion to $15 billion in the years to come.
In order to achieve this target, the BMR plan chalked out by
the government has to be implemented seriously. Financing constraints is however
one of the impediments in implementation of the BMR in textile industry in
Pakistan. Although over $500 million were spend on BMR by the industry from its
own resources. However the industry is unable to meet the entire funding from
its own resources obviously because of financial constraints. The financial
support is generally provided for BMR purposes all round the world and the
textile machinery producers generally play a significant role by offering
innovative financial schemes to support the industry as well as to promote the
sale of their products. Khalid Amin suggested to the Italian delegation to
extend such financial scheme to get a larger share in Pakistani market. It may
be mentioned the banking sector is not in a position to extend such a large size
of advances to the textile industry. The commercial banks are generally offer
short term loans while those who were suppose to provide long term financing
either are not in a good financial health.
The Italian Trade Commissioner while appreciating the growth
rate of textile industry in Pakistan said that Italy was among top three-textile
machinery producing countries and has already earned a respectable name in
Pakistan textiles.
He said that the textile sector in Pakistan however is
required to be upgraded to go for more value addition and consequently enhance
value of its exports in terms of quality, quantity and value.
He was of the view that since a large portion of the textile
exports from Pakistan goes into European market, it is vitally important for
textile sector to equip this sector with European machines, products and designs
popular in that choosy market.
He said that Pakistan is a major cotton producing country,
yet it has to go a long way to enhance value of the available raw material
through improvement of the ginning, spinning, weaving or other sort of finished
products.
The Textile Commissioner Mohammad Idrees, who also spoke on
the occasion said that Pakistan is getting ready to face the post 2004 scenario
when there will be no textile quota.
In order to survive in the high competitive market steps are
being taken to equip the industry with the most modern machinery to produce
quality productions.
Aziz Memon, Chairman, Pakistan Italian Business Forum
welcomed the first event organized by the Italian trade commission recently
established in Karachi. He expressed the hope that the Italian textile machinery
has earned a respectable place in the textile industry in Pakistan and will
continue to grow with the size of the market.
Meanwhile the textile sources have expressed their serious
dismay and concerns over what they called bureaucratic chains restricting growth
of the textile industry in Pakistan.
Sources said that industry is passing through the acute
financial crisis due to non-payment of billions of rupees held up under the head
of sales tax refunds. Various smaller units with limited resources have gone to
the brink of collapse and if immediate steps were not taken to redress the
issue, most of the smaller units would go out of business. He said that despite
tall claims and frequent promises made by the bureaucrats, the textile exporters
as well as the manufacturers are denied their due right of refunds running in
billions of rupees. He said that such uncalled for problems created by the
bureaucrats are seriously contradicting the policies of the government for
economic reforms and industrial growth.
