Industrial estate policies: Garment industry demands overhaul

LAHORE: The Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PHMA) on Tuesday demanded a comprehensive overhaul of Punjab’s industrial estate policy for the garment sector, warning that rigid relocation rules, weak compliance infrastructure and poor land-use enforcement were undermining the province’s export potential despite heavy investment in industrial parks.

The call came as PHMA Zonal Chairman Abdul Hameed briefed association members on the structural and policy challenges confronting Punjab’s garment industrial estates, saying that while the parks had been set up to boost exports and ease manufacturing practical hurdles on the ground limiting their effectiveness. He urged urgent reforms to improve export competitiveness, compliance readiness and relocation mechanisms for industry.

Abdul Hameed said the existing policy requiring investors to install entirely new machinery as a condition for relocation was impractical given the current state of the industry. Many garment factories already possessed installed production capacity, he noted, while a significant share of machinery remained underutilised because of fluctuating demand and rising costs. Forcing relocation on the basis of fresh machinery investment, he argued, placed an unnecessary financial burden on manufacturers and discouraged them from moving into industrial parks. He called for a structured relocation policy allowing existing units to shift their operations into designated industrial estates without being required to replace their machinery.

He welcomed the Punjab government’s plan to set up plug-and-play factory parks for the garment sector at an estimated cost of Rs13.3 billion, describing it as a positive step towards value addition and export-oriented industrialisation. He cautioned, however, that the initiative would only realise its full potential if practical relocation policies were put in place, enabling manufacturers to shift into the new parks with their existing machinery rather than being forced into fresh capital expenditure.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2026