Pakistan apparel industry is suffering with low productivity due to shortage of cotton yarn, high energy cost and heavy import duties on raw material. Chief Coordinator Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PRGMEA) Ijaz A Khokhar on Friday talking to media appealed the government to abolish duties on yarn imports for encourage value addition, reduce cost of doing business and bridging gap between production and consumption.

He said that government should allow the industry to import cotton from other countries to fulfilling the demands of foreign buyers. As the garments sector has great potential and ability to enhance 50 percent export and also this sector wides the scope of generating employment in the country.

The government should make necessary arrangements for reviewing export activities on quarterly basis adding that this process would help government to monitor pace of exports of the country. Also, there was a great need of setting up “Sector Specific Export Promotion Councils” for all export sectors to enhance exports of the country.

Ijaz further said that while preparing trade policy 2018-23, formulation of sector and regional wise policies should be consider adding that concerned high ups should consult stakeholders for formulating regional and sector wise policy.

The formulation of sector wise policies particularly regional based policies would not only help in increasing exports but also supportive in minimizing the problems confronted by the business community.

Due to non availability of latest fabric locally garments sector currently have a limited product line for export market while foreign buyers are demanding new garments on G3, G4 and technical fabric raw material which are not available and produced by Pakistani weavers so far.