Textile buying houses propose national compliance centre

KARACHI: Foreign textile buying houses on Wednesday advised the government to set up a central compliance centre in Pakistan to improve manufacturers’ compliance with social standards – a key determinant to clothing imports from the country.

Commerce Division of commerce ministry and Trade Development Authority of Pakistan hosted the first buying and sourcing houses symposium in which a large number of representatives from foreign buying houses, including Ikea, H&M, Marks and Spencer and Inditex participated.

The buying houses, sharing proposals to make Pakistan an attractive destination for sourcing by the international buyers, said the government may consider setting up sourcing parks to ensure all facilities through a one-window facility.

They said in the past many buying houses relocated out of Pakistan due to security situation. Since the security situation has improved, the buying houses may be provided incentives in terms of subsidised office space to come back to Pakistan, they added.

The buyers said a national compliance centre may be set up which coordinates the improvement of compliances on cooperative model to improve social compliances by the manufacturers, which are increasingly becoming an important critical determinant of sourcing decisions.

Secretary Commerce Younus Dagha said the buyers and sourcing agents play an important role in enhancing exports of a country by acting as a bridge between manufacturers and foreign buyers.

“The latest international trends in products especially textile, leather and footwear are set by the sourcing agents as per demand of the foreign buyers,” a commerce division’s statement quoted Dagha as saying.

Ministry of commerce has been in the process of formulation of strategic trade policy framework for the period 2018-23 and the objective of the symposium is to consult the buying and sourcing houses for the policy formulation, he added.

Secretary commerce said Pakistan recently improved social compliances, which were duly acknowledged by the European Union during the recent review under generalised scheme of preference plus.

The participants also proposed incentivisation of innovation for the manufacturers under the upcoming trade policy framework.

In February, Spanish Inditex Group, the world’s biggest clothes retailer and owner of an internationally-acclaimed fashion brand Zara, opened its maiden branch office in Pakistan to double its imports of around one billion dollars from Pakistan.

After witnessing slow growth during the past couple of years, outbound shipments recovered 12 percent to $15 billion in the first eight months of the current fiscal year of 2018 as exporters availed the government’s incetives to boost exports.

Government pinned much hope on textile exports, which account for more than 60 percent of the country’s total annual exports, to give impetus to the country’s exports.

In the recent past, some foreign brands closed their buying operation in the country.

Two US companies Character World and Disney shifted buying orders to Bangladesh and other regional countries.