Pakistan textile ministry plans to double its textile trade volume in coming years.

Pakistan’s economy is directly linked with the textile industry as it contributes more than US $ 13 billion in the country’s total exports. According to the Federal Minister for Textile industry Abbas Khan Afridi, if the textile industry grew, Pakistan will make progress and hence the textile ministry plans to double its textile trade volume in coming years.

The next trade policy (2014-15) will be formed with due consultation with all textile industry stakeholders. The government will focus on giving top priority to the value-addition in the textile sector. At present, value-added textile sectors export volume has move up from 13 to 15 percent, it would be working towards boosting it future as it has great potential and also helps generate more employment with lesser amount of investment. The step taken towards this will be resolving all the issues faced by this sector.

The ministry will also focus on increasing the number of textile trade items, as currently they export only 13 products while other countries export around 950 products in same sector.

The government is also keen to promote small industry and domestic commerce like other regional countries to enhance the trade volume and create new job opportunities for the people on sustainable basis.

With the European Union (EU) granting GSP-plus status to Pakistan, it is a huge success of current government and becomes extremely essential to provide all facilities to textile industry to compete in EU markets to achieve the export target.

In this regard, the government would consult with local business community in order to resolve their problems, especially textile industry. It will focus on resolving issues related to energy and provide equally electricity supply to textile industry in all region of Pakistan.

The textile ministry is of the view that man power of local textile industry with well equipped with modern tools and use of innovative techniques can increase the production like developed countries. With focus on textile industry, it is also working out plans to increase cotton production across the country.