President Asif Ali Zardari has assured the crisis hit industries of uninterrupted gas supply for five days a week from next month. The ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas Resources has been instructed to work out a plan to improve the gas supply to the textile industry especially in Punjab from the first week of May.
The president has given the direction during his meeting with a delegation of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) here at Bilawal House on Monday. Talking to Pakistan Today, Mohsin Aziz Chairman APTMA said that the industrialist have informed the grave situation of energy crisis in the country and its implications on the industrial growth. The president, he claimed, has informed that the Government was making all efforts to address power shortage issue of the textile industry. The present challenges call for greater and active partnership of the private and the public sector so as to adopt consensus based policies and to overcome issues being faced by the country.
He said that the association also informed the president that there should be a free market mechanism to facilitate every sector to grow. The intervention of Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP), as it was proposed earlier, was not justified. The president was informed that “though Indiahas banned the export of yarn, we will not suggest such ban or restriction but there should only be equitable prices of goods in the country.” He said that the president has also given a positive response to the demand made by the industrialist to rationalize the ‘interest rate’ under the present situation of energy crisis and other unfavorable environments in the country. “Under present interest rate we can not survive,” he added.
The industrialists, he claimed also requested the President to take initiatives to reduce the cost of borrowing and ensure uninterrupted supply of gas and electricity to the industry in order to create new jobs, increase exports and revive fresh investment in the manufacturing. Textile was the country’s largest industrial sector, which employs 47 per cent of the non-farm labour, constitutes up to 60pc of the export revenues, and contributes over nine per cent to the gross domestic product.
Mohsin Aziz, also briefed the meeting on the prospects of the already decreasing export of textile products and also spelled out the problems being faced by the textile sector. Those who were present during the meeting included Mohsin Aziz, Chairman APTMA, Gohar Ijaz Former Chairman, Ahsan Bashir, Chairman Punjab Zone, Sheikh Muhammad Akbar, Vice Chairman Centre, Yasin Siddique, Chairman Sindh/Balochistan Zones, Asif Inam, Chairman (Cotton Committee) and other executive members of APTMA. Makhdoom Amin Fahim, Raja Pervaiz Ashraf, Dr. Asim Hussain, Makhdoom Shahabuddin, Syed Naveed Qamar, Rehman Malik, federal secretaries and other senior officials of the concerned departments were also present during the meeting.
Earlier, while briefing about the meeting Spokesperson to the President Senator Farhatullah Babar said that the President said that textile industry was playing an important role in the country’s exports and there was a need to adopt out of the box solutions to address the issues being faced by the industry and to enhance value added exports of textiles.
The President emphasized upon the need for closer cooperation between the public sector research centers and the manufacturers/producers in private sector so as to create an enabling environment for enhancing productivity. He said that research efforts on developing new varieties of cotton with higher production potential, diverse and distinct characteristics must be geared up for meeting the future demands of cotton. The President said negligible investment in the past few years has cost the country its technological edge in the basic textiles which it used to enjoy once over the neighbouring countries.
