‘No option but to revive textile industry’

Pakistan described as the best place to do textile business.

LAHORE: For the sustainability of Pakistan’s economy, the hurdles faced by the textile industry must be removed with friendly policies as the industry is the single largest provider of employment, brings huge export orders and lends support to all those western businesses which are shifting focus to this region, says a foreign industry representative.

“Pakistan has no other option but to revive its textile sector, not for us, but for its economy,” said Denis Chiarello, Area Sales Manager of Italy-based company Tonello, while talking to The Express Tribune.

Chiarello was in Lahore to display his company’s machinery at the 7th International Textile and Garment Machinery Exhibition - IGATEX Pakistan 2012, which started on Thursday at the Lahore Expo Centre.

“We have been providing latest machinery for garments in Pakistan for 10 years and I believe Pakistan is still the best part of the world for textile business. But the energy crisis and poor law and order situation have struck not only the local millers, but also foreign companies, which are operating from Pakistan due to increased cost of doing businesses in the West,” he said.

Chiarello said the textile machinery exhibition would help him interact with the textile millers as majority of them were reluctant to purchase new machinery.

“International crisis has hit the world, we as a company prefer that part of the world which provides us the cheapest cost of doing business and Pakistan is still providing us with this opportunity.”

In the exhibition, 466 companies from Pakistan and 30 other countries like China, India, US, Germany, Turkey, UK and other European countries were displaying their latest textile machinery for all sorts of solutions.

It will provide a professionally enriching experience for the textile machinery manufacturers and an opportunity to directly market their equipment to buyers and decision-makers in an exceedingly competitive global business environment. The show will include working and standalone demonstrations for various cutting-edge industry tools and technology.

Considered as one of the top 10 textile exporting countries of the world, Pakistan is the fourth largest producer of cotton yarn and cloth and third largest player in Asia with spinning capacity of 5% of total world production. It also ranks second in the export of yarn, third in export of cloth and contributes 3% to total textile trade of the world.

Textile exports from Pakistan stood around $12 billion in 2011-12, but the industry believes that it can easily hit the $20 billion mark if provided with uninterrupted energy supply.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 12^th, 2012.