According to a Business Recorder news item, “APTMA bemoans raw material shortages” carried by the newspaper yesterday, “the country’s largest export-oriented textile industry is facing a severe crisis of raw material and the industry is closing due to supply chains disruptions. In a letter sent to Muhammad Ishaq Dar, Minister of Finance, Dr. Gohar Ejaz Patron-in-Chief, All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA), has warned of further decline in the textile exports, if supply chain disruption issues are not addressed on a top priority basis. That APTMA has raised the alarm is a fact.

Not only are exports declining, workers’ remittances are also showing a fall. For example, July-October remittances have declined 11 percent to $14.1 billion year-on-year. These negative trends clearly translate into a grim picture or outcome insofar as country’s foreign exchange reserves are concerned. They also constitute a challenge to country’s ability to repay external loans. The finance minister must take all the steps that are required to facilitate export-oriented sectors. Ensuring the availability of raw material that is required as input by export-oriented sectors will be one of these steps.

Hamid Wyne (Lahore)

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023