The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) Patron-in-Chief, Gohar Ejaz, has welcomed the historic announcement of providing regionally competitive energy with a countrywide uniform price to the textile industry in the budget.
He has expressed his deep gratitude to Prime Minister Imra
n Khan for keeping his word
s of reviving the export-oriented textile industry on Tuesday. During his visit to APTMA office in the month of February this year, he added, Imra
n Khan had promised to bring textile industry out of crisis soon after coming into power.
The textile millers have taken a sigh of relief after a long period of non-viability and are expecting a revival o
f the industry in the days ahead. They have further expressed the hope that a long term export-led growth policy would soon be announced to double country’s exports and create more jobs and growth of economy.
He s
aid the textile industry was burdened with energy cost worth Rs100 billion per annum during the last fiv
e years, resultantly, 30 percent production capacity was closed down, export-potential worth $4 billion became redundant and thousands of workers were laid off by the industry. Repeated calls by the APTMA kept falling on the deaf ears o
f the previous government that led to the closure of over 100 member mills’ operations, particularly in the province of Punjab.
He said APTMA leadership made a detailed presentation to Imra
n Khan during his visit to APTMA office in Lahore and suggested him the way forward to take the industry out of crisis and how to increase country’s exports. Imra
n Khan had made a clear cut commitment of introducing a uniform energy price for the exporting industry across the country, which would also be competitive regionally.
He s
aid the textile industry envisages undertaking BMR and green field investment initiatives to create exportable surplus, sustainable jobs and economic growth.
Gohar Ejaz has extended an assurance on behalf o
f the textile industry for supporting the government in achieving its target of economic growth and overcoming the unprecedented trade deficit.
Published in Daily Times, September 19th 2018.