NA panel approves development projects

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Textiles approved various projects to be incorporated in the Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for 2015/16, a statement said on Monday.
The committee, which met with MNA Ghulam Rasool Koreja in the chair approved projects, including Karachi Garment City Phase-I (Rs805.119 million), Faisalabad Garment City Phase-II (Rs598.5 million), Faisalabad Garment City Training Centre (Rs60 million), monitoring and management of BT resistance in cotton bollworms (Rs59.822 million), cotton as relay crop in standing wheat for enhancing productivity of cotton and wheat crop (Rs17.190 million). Besides, a project development of management strategies for red and dusky cotton bugs (Rs59.928 million), implementation of cotton standardization system for the production of high quality standardized clean cotton costing 75.16 million rupees were approved.
The ongoing projects (that were included in PSDP 2014-2015) comprise Pak-Korea Garment Technology Training Institute Karachi, strengthening of National Textile University Research Centre, Strengthening of Research and Development Cell, Skill Development Program for informal Textile Industry were also approved. The other approved projects include laying of water main for Pakistan textile city Karachi and Lahore garment city (phase-I).
During the meeting, Abdul Rasheed Godel drew attention towards increasing raw cotton export and demand for duty on imported yarn. The honourable member also came up with the suggestion of establishing sales offices in Dubai and South Africa. The federal minister for textile industry Abbas Khan Afridi stated that raw cotton export results in competitive advantage for other countries such as Bangladesh and negatively impacts our exports.
Value addition is norm of the day and must be encouraged. The minister textile industry proposed that Pakistan textile city Karachi must be an agenda item in the next meeting, so that the issues related to the much delayed project can be addressed as soon as possible as the project would provide employment to over 50,000 people.