First Technical Textile Resource Centre (TTRC) is being established in National Textile University (NTU) to provide technical support for the development of this important and potential sector of textile, said Dr Arshad Ali, Rector NTU. He was addressing a seminar arranged jointly by FCCI and Ministry of Textile on the 'Technical Textile' here on Monday. This seminar was also attended by Ms Neelofur Hafeez, Joint Secretary Ministry of Textile. Participants belonging to industry and academia also attended the seminar.
Dr Arshad said that funds have also been provided for the Centre and the work has been started to set up this TTRC on fast track basis. Dr Arshad termed technical textile as the future of Pakistan's textiles and said that with technical textile, we could earn much more as compared to the conventional textile. Quoting example, he said that per metre of cloth prepared by conventional textile is only Rs 10-20 per metre but per metre price of technical textile is more than Rs 3000/metre in some cases.
He said that it was very encouraging that all the stakeholders ie, the government, industry and academia are fully aware of the importance of the technical textile and are making efforts for the promotion of this emerging sector. However, he stressed collaboration and understanding among these stakeholders to achieve ultimate objectives for the promotion of technical textile in Pakistan.
He further said that only technical textile can help us to double our textile exports as envisaged in the new Textile Policy. He said that NTU is ready to play its role to lay down a comprehensive and viable roadmap to achieve this target within the stipulated time period.
He further said the separate and dedicated sub-sectors of Technical Textile would also be established in this proposed TTRC. He also admitted the importance of on-job training of the textile engineers and said that NTU will take initiatives to start refresher courses for the textile graduates working in different industries. Ms Neelofur, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Textile also underlined the importance of textile sector in our economy and said that we remained henceforth restricted to the conventional textile whereas the developed countries are concentrating on high value technical textile. He termed this seminar a 'baby step' for development of technical textile in Pakistan. She assured that sector specific seminars would be arranged regularly on every month to sensitise the industries and academia on different aspects of the textile sector.
Responding to a question, she said that certification of technical textile produces would not be an issue as NTU will provide required certification which would be acceptable globally. Regarding contamination free cotton, Ms Neelofar Hafeez said that she will direct the officials of textile Ministry to retrieve the study already made by SMEDA.
Earlier, Engr Rizwan Ashraf in his welcome address appreciated the NTU for conducting such an important event in a very short time period. He termed textile industry as backbone of Pakistan, adding that Pakistan today is considered as one of the top 10 textile exporting countries of the world. Pakistan is the 5th largest producer of cotton in the world. The textile sector enjoys a central position in the exports of Pakistan. He said that Pakistan, being the world's 9th largest exporter of textile products in 2012, its contribution is 8.5% to the national GDP. It provides employment to about 15 million people directly and indirectly. Pakistan's share is slightly above 1 percent in the total world textile export. This is because our value addition sector is not performing well.
He said that Technical Textile and Non-woven sector witnessed the strongest growth globally as well as in Europe. Both production and sales were doubled in the decade before 2012. China has captured the global position in 2013 with a market share of 28% in terms of production. Despite strong cyclical impact on the European economies, Technical Textiles industry grew strong than the European GDP. It is estimated that the world market will grow up to US $160.38 billion by 2018 but the share of Pakistan is never visible, he added
He said that we can achieve the export target of US $26 billion but both the business community and the government should put their efforts together so that we can move ahead to achieve the target. During question-answer session, Mian Farhan Latif, former president FCCI, Chaudhary Muhammad Nawaz of All Pakistan Power loom association and others raised interesting questions.
Engineer Rizwan Ashraf President FCCI presented a shield to Ms Neelofur Hafreez Joint secretary ministry of Textile. Nadeem Allahwala SVP also handed over a shield to Rector NTU Dr Arshad Ali. Later Inaam Afzal Khan vice president FCCI thanked the guests, speakers and participants of the seminar.
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