The industry faced a fresh jolt at a mega textile exhibition in Germany a few days ago when Pakistani exporters got only small orders in the wake of delay in meeting previous commitments.
The Faisalabad Industrial Estate Development and Management Company, which is managing the largest industrial estate of the country, has also suffered a lot.
Company Secretary Aamir Saleemi told The Express Tribune that it had scrapped plan for a textile industrial estate and was now working on a food industrial estate. “Now the company largely focuses on halal food, meat processing, food processing, poultry processing and pharmaceutical industries.”
He said the response to the Value Addition City was encouraging earlier when the energy crisis had not struck on a large scale. Though some textile industrialists bought plots to set up projects in the Faisalabad industrial estate, spread over 4,500 acres, they were unable to attract investment.
Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry Vice-Chairman Rehan Naseem Bharara said exporters of Punjab had failed to win significant orders in the German Heimtextil exhibition compared to last year. However, the textile industry of Sindh got better orders compared to Punjab.
“New plans for setting up industries and projects as well as new investments have been withheld,” he said and called for rescheduling the gas load management plan.
“Suspension of gas supply for a long period of time, political instability and economic slowdown have caused the closure of industrial units, rendering thousands of workers jobless,” said Rana Arif Tauseef, Chief Executive Officer of Rana Textile Mills.
Textile exporter Qamer Aftab was of the view that the economic slowdown and energy crisis had prevented the industrialists from making new investments. “Smooth gas supply is the only way to save the value-added export and labour-intensive textile industry,” he said.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 18th, 2012.
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people investing in pakistan have to be very cautious as the security situation is not right.
If your business could not get the power necessary to keep the plant running what would you do -- suspect many will seriously consider relocating the equipment to a country which can provide the power -- perhaps Bangladesh or Turkey?