2011-8-1
He pointed out that the textile sector plays a significant role in Pakistan’s economy and constitutes 60 percent of the country’s total exports and provides jobs to 40 percent of total workforce. He noted that the removal of World Trade Order (WTO) has opened business opportunities for the global textile sector. The regional textile exporting countries like China, India and Bangladesh have significantly increased their market share while Pakistan is yet to capitalise on these opportunities.
Prime Minister Gilani said Pakistan was blessed with natural resources like cotton crop, unique geo-political location, rich history of quality textile products and a large labour force to place itself as a global leader in this sector.
Identifying the problems facing the industry, he said these are low skilled labour, power shortage and above all inadequate infrastructure. The Infrastructure development, therefore, is critical for the growth and serves as a catalyst for generating economic activities, he observed.
The Prime Minister stated that absence of reliable infrastructure offering uninterrupted supply of utilities has been one of the major causes of decline in textile exports specially value added items in the post-WTO era.
“It is imperative to offer the textile sector modern and reliable infrastructure at par with international standard”, the Prime Minister said.
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