Cotton yarn crisis delays introduction of Textile Bill-Texglobe

ISLAMABAD (May 26 2010): The ongoing cotton yarn crisis has delayed the introduction of "Textile Development and Promotion Bill", which is meant to monitor implementation of the textile policy (2009-14) and to ensure accurate statistics of production capacity, exports and total number of textile units in the country, Business Recorder has learnt.

Sources said that the details of the proposed Textile Bill have yet not been discussed with the stakeholders. After discussing the details of the bill with the stakeholders, the draft would be sent to the Cabinet for approval. "Textile Ministry is lacking human resources and it is difficult for it to monitor so many issues at a time," they said, adding that the yarn issue remained the focal point of the Ministry for the last six months and it spared little time for other issues including the implementation of the textile policy.

The proposed Textile law would require all the textile units functioning in the country to register with Ministry of Textile Industry, as only registered textile units would get incentives announced in the Textile Policy framework. They maintained that a federal board of textile industries would be constituted under the proposed bill for regular interaction between the industry and the policy makers to ensure development and promotion of the textile industry.

The sources said that the Ministry lacks complete information about the textile units and data of their production capacity to make appropriate plans regarding the implementation of new textile policy. The new legislation aims to implement the new textile policy, strengthen the structure of textile industries and to get complete data. Presently there is no textile export and import law in the country. In the proposed textile bill, rules would be laid down and growth and activity of the industry would be monitored, they added.

A senior official of the Textile Ministry said that internal negotiations on the proposed textile bill are underway and after its completion the bill would also be discussed with the stakeholders. He maintained that the government is committed to developing the textile sector and maximum possible assistance would be provided to boost this important sector of the economy.