FAISALABAD:The participants in the 28th specialised training programme of the Pakistan Institute of Trade & Development (PITAD) met Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI) Senior Vice President Imran Mahmood Sheikh and discussed various issues.
The delegation is on a study tour of Faisalabad under the leadership of Madam Nazish Sami, director training PITAD.
Imran Mahmood Sheikh gave a brief of Faisalabad and FCCI. He also expressed his views about the prevalent economic situation in addition to responding to the questions of the probationers. He said that Faisalabad is strategically located in the heart of Pakistan from where access to every part of Pakistan was quite easy. “For exports Faisalabad has also efficient rail, road and air links”, he said and added that Faisalabad is contributing 65% share towards total textile export of Pakistan while in overall economy its share is around 22%. He said that economies across the globe contracted due to corona but Pakistan remained comparatively safe due to its smart lockdown policy. About textile exports, he said that we have to spend 80% on the import of raw material for textile exports, hence we must adopt a futuristic vision to manufacture imported raw material locally within the country during the next ten years. He said that our cotton production also remained poor and last year we have to import approximately 7 million bales with 4 billion dollars which had a negative impact on our foreign exchange reserves. He termed the SME sector as the growth engine and said that we have only one hundred composite industrial units with 3500 major exporters. “Government must take appropriate measures so that small units could grow as medium and medium units could get their berth in the large units”, he added. However, in this connection Research & Development is imperative and exporters must be supported with the Export Development Fund (EDF) to improve the quality of their products by adopting innovative technologies.
He said that the textile sector was investing 500 million dollars to import air jet looms and modern spinning machinery which will in return add at least 5 to 6 billion dollars in our exports. Responding to a question about diversification, he said that no doubt textile is an iconic representation of Faisalabad but other sectors are also making steady progress. In this connection, he particularly mentioned steel, car assembling plants and mobile phone manufacturing units which will entirely change the industrial landscape of Faisalabad.
Madam Nazish Sami director training PITAD said that probationers are visiting Faisalabad in view of its economic importance which will help them to play their role in enhancing exports in order to stabilize the national economy. The probationers also introduced themselves and participated in a question-answer session.
Earlier a comprehensive presentation was given to them about Faisalabad and FCCI. Madam Nighat Shahid President Faisalabad Women Chamber of Commerce & Industry was also present during this meeting.