LAHORE: Pakistan’s newly hired trade officers have asked for help from the All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) to boost the country’s textile exports and look into investment opportunities in the textile sector.
On Monday, a group of 14 officers from different job groups who have been chosen to work as Consul Generals, Ministers, Consulars, and Attachés in Pakistani missions abroad went to the APTMA Lahore office.
The delegation included APTMA Chairman Abdul Rahim Nasir, Chairman of APTMA Northern Zone Hamid Zaman, Senior Vice Chairman of APTMA Kamran Arshad, and Secretary-General of APTMA North Raza Baqir greeted the delegation.
During their visit to the APTMA, trade and investment officers talked about how important it was to hold regular online meetings with APTMA members so that they could explore trade and investment opportunities together and build strong ties between Pakistan’s business community and the business communities of the host countries.
Abdul Rahim Nasir, Chairman of the APTMA, spoke at the event and said that the textile industry is responsible for 46 percent of all manufacturing and about 40 percent of all jobs. He said that exports of textiles, which were worth $15.4 billion in FY21, are expected to be worth $20 billion by the end of this financial year. He also stated that textile exports performed very well in May of this year, with a 50% increase over the same month last year.It was also good to hear that the value-added sector of textiles has shown growth like never before.
Rahim said that the trade and investment officers who work for the country’s missions in more than 50 countries can help boost exports in a big way. He said that these officers should go to all trade shows and make reports for trade groups and general exporters to help them find new markets and take advantage of trade opportunities.
Hamid Zaman, Chairman of APTMA North, said at this event that trade officers should be active and visit all the major markets and business hubs in the countries where they are posted to help increase exports. He also said that the trade missions abroad should make it easy for foreign buyers and investors to get visas so they can go to Pakistan for business trips. He said that trade facilitation centres should be set up in every market in the world.
Referring to the preferential customs duties and tariffs that are given to our competitors, he said that trade officers must lobby in their countries of posting for preferential customs duties and tariffs for Pakistan so that more and more goods can be sent to all export destinations from Pakistan.
He also said that CIS countries are very important because they give us a way to send our goods overseas by land. He stressed how important it is to get more trade to this important area through Afghanistan and Tajikistan as soon as possible.
He was sure that it would be easy to increase Pakistan’s exports by giving trade and commercial officers goals and rewarding them when they met those goals.
All the trade officers promised to help Pakistani exporters and investors as much as possible and to keep in close contact with all trade and industry associations and chambers so that they could do their jobs well. They promised that they would always be willing to keep in close touch with the industry back home and use quick electronic exchanges of information to close any gaps between businesses in Pakistan and those in the country where they were posted.
At the end of the meeting, Mr. Kamran Arshad, Senior Vice Chairman of APTMA, thanked the visiting delegation and said he was sure that all officers who were sent abroad would take advantage of all trade and investment opportunities while they were there.