ISLAMABAD: Adviser on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood said the government set an export target of $ 200 billion by the end of Fiscal Year 2025.
Addressing the press conference while launching the ‘3rd Textile and Apparel Policy’ approved by the ederal Cabinet, Razak Dawood hoped that the country’s textile exports would increase from the current $15 billion to $21 billion by June 30, 2022.
The key features of the 3rd Textile and Apparel Policy recently approved by the cabinet include value addition in textile, manufacturing of globally competitive products according to the global trading market, and subsidizing more facilities in this sector so that it can compete with its regional competitors, he said.
“We have seen a 32 percent growth in textiles this year, which is expected to reach 26 percent by the end of the coming year,” he said, adding that Pakistan’s share in the global textile market is 1.8 percent, which needs to be increased and it has vast potential for further expansion.
He said that the government has rationalized tariff and has reduced the duties in many areas of textile from zero to 50 percent. Similarly, textiles machinery is also being imported in the textile sector on which duties have been reduced so that modern machinery can be brought in the textile industry and its products can be introduced in the global competitive market.
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The Adviser said that the government was trying its best to make the current growth in textile sustainable so that it could contribute to the economic growth of the country. He said that is why the government is incentivizing the textile sector through short and long-term policies. Similarly, the government has provided full facilities to the textile and non-textile sector through Duty Drawback on Local Taxes (DLTL) payments.
He said that textile has grown in both value-added and non-value added. He said Pakistan was ranked fifth globally in cotton and yawn, second in demon and fabrics and also second in cotton clothier. He informed that in textile value-added, Pakistan is second in home textile, second in Towel, third in hosiery and 17th in apparel.
Regarding past performance in this sector, he said that over the last ten years, our position in the textile sector has been the same. He said that the government is introducing new markets and products in textile under the policy of trade diversification at geographical and product level on both sides.
He said earlier Pakistani exports were limited to only ten markets, now work is underway in new markets. Similarly, textile innovation and technology introduction products are manufactured in line with the global competitive markets.
The Adviser said that the value of textile in the global market is valued at $1 trillion, while the market for other commodities like Information Technology (IT) and Chemicals is much bigger. That’s why the global market for information technology and pharmaceuticals, such as non-traditions items, now stands at $5 trillion and chemicals account for $4 trillion, he maintained.
