Garment manufacturers back new finance team to overcome deficit

Asks govt to enact effective policies in consultation with stakeholders


Our Correspondent January 03, 2018
File Photo: Employees sew clothes at a garment factory in New Delhi September 29, 2014. PHOTO: REUTERS

LAHORE: Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PRGMEA) hopes that new faces in the finance ministry will be able to curtail the growing trade deficit, according to a statement released on Tuesday.

Welcoming the appointment of Miftah Ismail as Adviser to PM on Finance and Rana Afzal Khan as State Minister for Finance, the statement said that PRGMEA officials look forward to working with the new team in overcoming the trade deficit and chalking out a path for industrial and economic growth.

They said that despite having qualities of leadership the ministers cannot achieve the export target without removing ‘hurdles’ in the way of increasing textile sector exports. For this purpose, the first step is the early implementation of the revised PM Package for the exporters in its true spirit, the statement added.



“The finance ministry should invite export-oriented industry’s representative bodies including PRGMEA for consultation in resolving issues. The PRGMEA wants economic progress and prosperity of the country and for this purpose, correct policies need to be enacted in consultation with the stakeholders,” PRGMEA officials stated. PRGMEA Chief Coordinator Ijaz Khokhar said that consultation in policymaking will bring the economy out of the current ‘quagmire’ and therefore stakeholders must be taken on board on economic matters. He said that the private sector should be facilitated and a plan should be evolved to improve declining exports.

He said that over next two decades, over 28 million new jobs will be required and the apparel sector, mostly consisting of small and medium units and being a major source of employment needs the support of the government.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 3rd, 2018.

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