Misconceptions about Pakistan’s textile industry

I would like to highlight several misconceptions on Pakistan’s textile industry through this letter. Many times I come across well educated gentlemen who point out that textile industry is always asking for concessions and is a burden on our economy. This view is totally incorrect. Our textile industry is a major foreign revenue earner, largest employment generator and the highest tax payer segment in our economy. It is the only manufacturing sector that makes the country proud by introducing its products to leading companies all around the world.

It is true indeed that the industry does asks for certain concessions from time to time but the fact of the matter is that textiles is a labor intensive sector and wherever in the world there is textile industry it is always always protected directly or indirectly because its employment generating nature. The idea behind free trade is to concentrate industries where they have natural advantage thus making products economical for all but unfortunately our successive governments have been going against this theory and have tried and failed repeatedly to make other industries parallel to textiles. Although it is very important for Pakistan to diversity its product base but to do this on the cost of an industry which has a natural advantage makes no sense.

I am sure that all stakeholders would agree with me when I say that textile industry is ready to play its role in the economic uplift of the country in this dire time of need. All we want is to get GSP+ facility from EU and a proper FTA with USA for our products. If these two treaties are penned properly, we are more than sure that our textile exports would double to touch US$ 20 billion in next 4-5 years thus eliminating the need of begging for financial aid from anyone or putting any burden on our economy.

All we want from our government is to provide a level playing field vis-à-vis our global competitors and if this is provided we are sure that the textile industry will lead Pakistan out of these dark times.