ISLAMABAD: Ministry of Textile Industry has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Employees' Old-Age Benefits Institution (EOBI) and Punjab Employees Social Security Institution (PESSI) to encourage the employment of females and handicapped in the textile sector.
Agreement to this effect was signed by signed by Abid Bashir on behalf of Ministry of Textile Industry while Farooq Ahmed Khan inked the agreement on behalf of EOBI and Sher Alam Khan on the behalf of PESSI.
Minister for Textile Industry Makhdoom Shuhab-uddin also witnessed the signing ceremony.
Speaking on the occasion, Makhdoom Shuhab-uddin said that there is a cost associated while hiring female and handicapped workers and to mitigate these cost, government has agreed to bear two regulatory costs namely Social Security and EOBI for women and handicapped.
He said that the Ministry of Textile Industry will reimburse to the textile mill owners the cost incurred by them on account of contributions towards EOBI and Social Security made for their female and handicapped workers. The cumulative amount for the last two years is expected to be about Rs. 1 billion.
He said that textile sector was the most important sector of our country as it contributed nearly 8 per cent to country's GDP, produced 24 per cent of industrial value added, employed 40 per cent of industrial work force, consumed 40 per cent of bank credit to manufacturing and accounted for nearly 60 per cent of our exports.
The announcement of the first ever Textile Policy of the country on 12.08.2009 was the most significant achievement of the Ministry since its establishment in 2004.
Another significant achievement of Ministry of Textile Industry, he said was its initiative to bring about necessary legislation for the textile industry.
In this regards, the draft of Textile Industry (Development, Promotion and Standards) Act is being finalized.
The law will also provide for gender balance in textiles employment, cover tariff rationalization, branding and measures to reduce the cost of doing business, he remarked.
The primary target of the policy 2009-14 is to double the rate of value addition in textiles chain from the present $ 1 billion per million bales to $2 billion per million bales over five years.
The Policy envisages enhancement of export performance of textile industry to the target of $ 25 billion by 2014.
Replying the question, minister said that the granting Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India was still in the process of consultation with all stockholders.
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