Business

FCCI seeks policies for boosting value addition

Says SMEs need to switch to latest technology so they can export goods

Imran Rana October 25, 2018

Faisalabad chamber of commerce and industry. PHOTO: EXPRESS

FAISALABAD: Comprehensive and long-term policies are imperative to manufacture local substitutes of imports for value addition in the textile chain, said Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FCCI) Acting President Mian Tanveer Ahmed.

Speaking at the ‘Business Awareness Session’, organised by the Faisalabad Dyes and Chemicals Merchants Association (FDCMA), he said that textile was the mainstay of national economy.

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Ahmed said that Faisalabad contributed 55% to total textile exports of the country. “The growth of textile sector is directly linked with the availability of cotton,” he pointed out, adding that cotton was consumed by at least 16 sub-sectors starting from cotton ginning to the manufacturing of fashion garments.

Naming many progressive businessmen in Faisalabad, the FCCI official said, “Many of these are working as vendors for globally renowned textile brands.”

He said that the city had state-of-the-art textile units, however, many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) were still functioning with obsolete technologies. Ahmed lamented that due to this reason the products of these SMEs could not be exported or marketed in developed countries.

He stressed the need for these units to switch over to latest technology “so that the overall share of Pakistan’s exports can be enhanced”.

The acting president pointed out that Bangladesh was earning higher foreign exchange than Pakistan through value addition in cotton. “This situation is an eye opener for our country, which has potential to produce 25-30 million bales of cotton per year.”

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Ahmed demanded that Pakistan must encourage value addition because, at present, its import bill comprised a large number of products including textile machinery, dyes and chemicals to maintain the quantum of its exports.

“The country should concentrate on the manufacturing of local substitutes of these imports,” he said. “It would not only support the export sector but would also help stabilise the economy.”

Published in The Express Tribune, October 25^th, 2018.

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