Dec 11, 2020
Pakistan’s exports of knitwear and other knitted garments and hosiery grew by nearly 13 per cent in the first four months of the current financial year as the industry continued to show its resilience to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
The latest figures from the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics show that exports totaled 24,425 thousand dozens of knitwear items worth $1.18 billion between July and October 2020, compared to $1.05 billion in the same period last year
Exports of ready made garments from Pakistan were up 4.6 per cent compared to last year accounting for around 11,378 thousand dozens of ready made garments with a value of $947.419.
The figures also show that in total, textile exports were up 3.78 per cent to $4.79 billion compared to 2019, despite a drop in exports of raw cotton and cotton yarn.
The boosted knitwear figures come as the sector reported recently that it was back up and running to almost full capacity following the almost total shutdown earlier this year, brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.
The much-needed growth in textile production has also prompted a significant leap in cotton and synthetic yarn imports. “The textile industry has revived to pre-Covid-19 level, as precautionary measures to safeguard people from the virus and industry-specific economic measures by the government have helped at length to resume production to full capacity,” All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Apmta) former vice-chairman Asif Inam told The Express Tribune, adding some of the textile units which closed down permanently during the crisis had not reopened.
Inam also suggested that Pakistan was faring better than many of its regional competitors with buyers diverting a number of their orders to Pakistan from China, India and Bangladesh. This, he said was a knock on effect of the US-China trade war as well as lower production in India which was experiencing a worsening of the Covid-19 crisis.
“The number of export orders may increase in the time to come with recovery from the pandemic in export countries and regions, including the US and Europe,” Inam said. “The industry has also recovered at a fast pace with the government’s support in the shape of rationalizing energy prices to a regional competitive level, the continued supply of raw material and subsidized financing for the expansion of production and setting up new units.
“All these were the long pending demands of the industry to become competitive at the regional and international level. We had put such demands in front of several previous governments time and again, but this government has kept its words and delivered to the industry.”
Dec 11, 2020
LAHORE: The Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association has proposed to Prime Minister Imran Khan to declare Sialkot as a value-added city, as it is a hub of small and medium enterprises (SME) sector, contributing $2.5 billion foreign exchange by adding a multi-fold value addition in garments, sports goods, surgical goods, musical devices, cutlery, leather garments, gloves, handmade badges and military uniforms.https://03c3729bbb8a166a06d0412220ddd886.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html
Sialkot is the only city in the whole Asia where business community has built its own airport and now it is going to launch a private airline-‘Airsial’, which will help spur export growth from this city.
The PRGMEA Central Chairman Sohail Sheikh and Chief Coordinator Ijaz Khokhar observed that it is the fourth largest value-added garment city in Pakistan, therefore the prime minister is requested to also announce a ‘garment city’ for Sialkot in line with the garment cities of Karachi, Faisalabad and Lahore.
Addressing a meeting here to discuss and finalise the meeting agenda with the members, to be presented to the PM on his forthcoming visit to Sialkot, both leaders of PRGMEA pledged that Sialkot, after establishment of garment city, will be able to increase garment export in three-fold to $1.5 billion from the current figure of $530 million.
“We appreciate the PM as well as Adviser to PM on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood for incorporating our several major demands in forthcoming textile policy and hope that rest of the proposals will also get their serious consideration before its final approval from the cabinet,” the central chairman said.
He said that all PRGMEA members welcome speedy disbursement of sales tax refunds under faster plus system, DLTL refunds, customs rebate being deposited directly into the bank, cut in power tariff for SMEs and reduction of interest rate to 7 percent, which would ultimately lead to an aggressive sale in future and hopefully gear up the export in 2021.
Ijaz Khokhar observed that the SBP’s relief measures, including temporary economic refinance facility for machinery imports, is very encouraging and good for industrial expansion. “The PRGMEA appreciates the efforts of the PM to cut power tariff for SMEs which covers almost 90 percent of the industry and especially the efforts of the Commerce Ministry to promote economic growth in the country and provide liquidity and other support to the value-added apparel sector during COVID-19 are really appreciable,” he said.
The chairman also hailed the significant growth observed in apparel export for the months of Nov 2020. He said that this was in line with the government policy of promotion of value-added exports, which is reflecting a healthy trend. He called for advising trade missions abroad to actively engage the importers for promotion of Pakistan’s exports.
“We are thankful to the government for releasing Rs1.78 billion for textile sector under drawback of local taxes and levy scheme (DLTL).
Dec 11, 2020
Pakistan will launch a long-awaited new textile policy this month to increase fabric and apparel exports from $12.86 billion to $20.86 billion in five years, the commerce minister has said. The country’s previous five-year textile policies — for 2009-14 and 2014-19 — aimed at increasing fabric and apparel exports to $25 billion and $26 billion respectively, but the targets were never achieved.
The 2020-25 policy was approved by Prime Minister Imran Khan in March this year, but still awaits official announcement.
The policy, according to a draft seen by Arab News, aims to attract domestic and foreign investment into textile and apparel supply chains and develop value-added sectors.
“The policy will be implemented this month,” Abdul Razak Dawood, the prime minister’s adviser for commerce and textile, told Arab News in an interview this week. The textile minister said his government had already factored in the impact of the coronavirus outbreak in the new policy and was open to taking additional measures after the latest COVID surge and the possibility of a vaccine in the coming months.
“We had envisaged a higher target but the new wave of COVID has arrived and I am worried that things may change but let’s see what this COVID spike is doing”, Dawood said. “There are talks of vaccine coming in and if the vaccine comes in then the situation will change.”
Despite being the world’s fourth largest producer and third largest consumer of cotton, Pakistan’s comparative advantage is diminished by low value-added textile products.
This year’s textile export target has been set at $12.86 billion, with $9.4 billion from value added and $3.3 billion from raw or semi-finished textile products, according to the draft of the 2020-25 policy. In 2025, the government plans to reach $20.86 billion — $16.29 billion from value-added goods.
Textile exporters say they are anxiously waiting for the new policy to be announced to plan their future actions.
“Textile sector is anxiously waiting for the policy. It is already long delayed,” Ijaz Khokhar, chief coordinator of the Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PRGMEA), told Arab News.
“People are in a kind of panic in the current situation of pandemic … The policy is urgently needed for future planning,” he said.
Pakistan’s textile sector contributes nearly one-fourth of its industrial value-added products, provides employment to about 40 percent of industrial labor, consumes 40 percent of banking credit to the manufacturing sector and accounts for 8.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP).
Ministerial and All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) data show that textile products maintain an average share of about 54 percent of the country’s overall exports.
In the previous fiscal year, Pakistan’s textile exports reached $12.5 billion.
