'CPEC industrialization phase opens new avenues of value-addition in textile garment sector'

FAISALABAD: Industrialization phase of China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has opened new avenues of value-addition in textile garment sector instead of sticking to the export of raw or semi-finished products and Pakistan should work under a comprehensive and planned strategy to exploit one belt one road to cater to the garment needs of the countries from Gulf up to Europe.

This was said by Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI) former Vice President Engineer Ahmad Hassan. He was participating in a panel discussion jointly organized by the National Textile University (NTU) and R&D Section of FCCI here in connection with the 3rd All Pakistan DICE Textile Innovation event.

Ahmad Hassan told that historic investment of 51 billion dollar has laid down a strong foundation for the accelerated development and growth of this region.

He said, "CPEC is an opportunity as well as challenge and we must prepare ourselves to harvest the benefits from this project which is going to be a reality."

He also explained in detail the geostrategic location of CPEC and said that roads are important to gear up the socioeconomic development of any area.

The China Pakistan Economic Corridor will not only benefit Pakistan and China but regional countries could also get its due dividends, he added.

Dr. Tanveer Hussain Rector NTU told that China is making huge investment of 2.7 billion dollar in its textile garment sector. The objective of this initiative is to produce 500 million garments per annum by 2020, he said and added that it will also provide Pakistan an opportunity to avail from Chinese benefits and get its due share from the garment sector.

He also supported an idea to establish a full-fledged Chinese department in NTU to make a pace with well-advanced Chinese industries.

Professor Wang of Beijing University said that 30 years ago China was also facing Pakistan like situation with rampant energy shortage and high cost of doing business. At that time, Japanese and Korean investors established their units in China, he said and added that they fully benefited from their experiences and later upgraded their industry to compete with the rest of the world.

He said that Pakistan should also prepare itself to face emerging challenges so that it could also make progress in the coming years.

The panelists who took part in this discussion include Deputy Director Chinese Study Center Dr. Zameer Ahmed Awan, Retired Major General Akbar Saeed Awan, Zaheer-ud-Din of the National University of Science & Technology Islamabad, Waheed Khaliq Ramay Chairman Power looms Owners Association, Dr. Saeed Zameer-ul-Hassan Associate Professor Balochistan University of Information technology & Management Sciences, Inam Afzal Khan, Former Vice President FCCI and Managing Editor Textile Journal Nadeem Mazhar.