Textile industry's future bright: Cheema

Federal Minister for Textiles, Mushtaq Cheema has said that future of the textile industry is bright and the ministry has completed the process of consultation with the private stakeholders, while discussions with the representatives of government would be held before announcement of the policy.
While talking to journalists here on Monday, Cheema maintained that more than 80 percent demands of the textile sector had been accepted by the government while remaining demands would also be acceded to.
However, he said the government had some limitations and all the demands of the textile industrialists cannot be accepted. "There are certain rules and regulations as well as by-laws and textile ministry is bound to follow the same", he added. Ban has already been lifted on cotton import through Wagha from India, however, dialogues with the Punjab government were going on, and after developing cannons, spinners would be allowed cotton import from India, he added.
He further said that measures were being taken to improve the standard of cotton and in this regard, Minfal was struggling to produce BT cotton of international standard by giving special incentives to the growers. He said that government would give Rs 30 to 50 per maund as premium to the growers if the grower provides contamination free cotton to the ginners. Hard and fast rules are being made for the growers to ensure quality of the cotton. Six-month imprisonment would be awarded to those who will violate the set cotton standards, he added.
'We are not meeting the international standard as far as competitiveness standards are concerned. Pakistan was lucky enough that it was 4th biggest growers of the cotton in the world and it does not need to import cotton from other parts of the word. It helps decrease the cost of production as compared to other countries', he observed.
In reply to a question, he said that garment sector should improve quality standards also check the wastage apart from improving marketing of their products. He said that non-skilled workers were the main reason for increasing wastage in the garments industry. Without decreasing the wastage, cost of production could not be minimised, he opined.
When asked what measures were taken by the government to provide skilled workers to the garments sector, he said that textile ministry was imparting training to the workers and giving Rs 2500 stipend per month to each worker and this programme was going on successfully.
Regarding the long-term loans and mark up percentage, he said that loans were rescheduled and negotiations with the banking authorities were going on, to decrease the mark-up. This initiative was taken by the government on the demands of the textile, sector, he concluded.