FAISALABAD City News

New textile policy in 15 days: Khurram Dastgir
Says Commerce Ministry, US to organise conference next month
From Our Correspondent
FAISALABAD: Federal Minister for Commerce Khurram Dastgir Khan has said that Pakistan has crossed the set target of an additional $1 billion export to the EU in just 10 months under the GSP Plus status.
He said this while addressing the members of the Pakistan Textile Exporters Association here on Wednesday. He said that being confronted with severe energy shortage and extremism, it was a great achievement. This was encouraging for all of us as it was slightly beyond the expected growth target that the Ministry of Commerce had set, he added. He said that Pakistan’s exports to the EU had increased by an additional $1.08 billion from January to October 2014. The figures were especially encouraging for the value-added textile sector as its exports to the EU had shown 25pc growth, which was a good trend, he added. The Commerce Ministry was in a process to re-design the model of the EDF as its previous version was not benefiting the export sector, he informed. He said that new textile policy would be approved within 15 days and would be implemented soon. On the issue of exporters’ huge pendency in refunds regime, Khurram Dastgir said that both Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Textile Industry were advocating the case being high importance with the Finance Ministry. He informed that the Ministry of Commerce in collaboration with the US would organise a business opportunity conference in Islamabad next month. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had given the task to expedite growth of commerce to maximum possible level by using all available means, he maintained. He underlined the need for serious and well-planned efforts for increasing value addition especially in textile sector for capturing more share in the regional and international markets. On the energy issue, he said that the government was working on war-footings to bridge the huge gap between demand and supply of electricity. With the support of the masses, we would overcome the challenges being faced by the country, he said and added that the future of Pakistan was very bright and all resources would be mobilise for converting Pakistan according to wishes and dreams, he added. Pakistan Textile Exporters Association chairman Sohail Pasha termed the GSP Plus a great achievement of the government. Pointing out major hurdles in export growth, Sohail Pasha said that huge capital blockage in refund cycle was causing a major dent to textile exports and economy. He demanded the government exempt value added textile sector from regulatory duty on cotton yarn import.