Yarn merchants seek govt support

KARACHI: Pakistan Yarn Merchants Association (PYMA) on Thursday urged the government to design policies that could help in promoting industrialisation, appealing to PM Shehbaz Sharif to take measures for addressing a declining trend in the textile exports.

The prime minister should consider legitimate demands of the textile industry to save it from a crisis, PYMA senior vice chairman Sohail Nisar said.

“The textile exports reduced for the second consecutive month in November while direct investment is also seen decreasing more than 50 percent,” he said citing data released by the Institute of Statistics Pakistan.

Textile exports dropped by 18.15 percent to $1.42 billion, from $1.736 billion in the same month last year. The exports declined by 5.1 percent from July to November, decreasing $7.36 billion in the same period of the fiscal year 2022, compared to $ 7.76 billion, he added.

PYMA vice chairman said supply chain issues, capital and energy shortage, difficulties in importing of raw materials, including industrial machinery, had intensified a crisis for the textile industry.

“The productive activities of the textile industry have been halved and if the crisis continues, it is feared that the monthly exports of textile next month will be less than $1 billion.”

The government should take effective steps to get the textile industry out of the crisis so that the industries continue to operate and the completion of export orders could be ensured in a timely manner, Nisar urged.