Textile industry still has a long way to go

Three years after Pakistan's leading policy makers began claiming a huge flow of new investments into the country's textile sector, a boom that is taking over textile producers from elsewhere in the world has been far from reaching here.

News of this disappointing performance has recently been highlighted in the wake of a report published by the UN's development programme (UNDP), which reveals that Pakistan is still lagging behind in textile exports, especially to the important markets of the European Union and the US.

While some of the world's fast-growing economies like India and China are clearly emerging as the dominant players in the global textiles market, Pakistan has yet to come up as a robust player.

Analysts warn that Pakistan's textile-related dilemma has been exacerbated because its exports are still to countries which fetch lower prices per unit by comparison with some other exporters.

This is alarming for a country that produces cotton, the main raw material for textiles in abundance within its borders. It should therefore be an adequate measure for serving the needs of the local industry.

By contrast with countries which are significantly ahead of Pakistan as textile exporters, but principally reliant on imported raw materials including cotton, this is an unimpressive performance.

Lagging behind

Pakistan also suffers from a significant gap in its human resource capacity which is central if bridged to pushing up its exports. In comparison to many other textile exporting countries, the quality of Pakistan's textile human resource continues to lag behind.

The sluggish performance of Pakistan's textile sector is especially alarming at a time when the south Asian country faces a major economic battle to safeguard its interests. A yawning international trade deficit and a sharply rising current account deficit are major reasons for Pakistan to move aggressively to raise its exports sharply.

Additionally, Pakistan continues to face the challenge of finding adequate employment opportunities not only for its growing population, but more importantly for the many of those who are unemployed.

The stakes remain high for Pakistan's ability to find new jobs at a fast pace for its people and the extent to which the country can lead itself towards social, economic and ultimately political stability.

Three-pronged

For meeting the challenge of raising textile productivity, Pakistan has to embark fast on a long overdue three-pronged approach. This must fundamentally be driven by the question built upon asking exactly why that investment estimated at approximately $5 billion in the textile industry, just in the past few years, has failed to translate itself into concrete and tangible results.

While some of Pakistan's top textile industrialists have poured money into brick and mortar followed by new machinery, they have failed to robustly raise their investment in their human resource. Hence, gaps such as one where there are few examples of formal scholarships to well-deserving students from the existing stock of textile workers is a common feature of the way textile factories are run in today's Pakistan.

Another key element has to be a far more robust approach towards international marketing of Pakistan's exportable textile products. Ultimately, the outcome for any industry has to be dependent upon the quality of what it produces, and the extent to which the salesmanship comes in to play is an important factor.

Last but not the least, the future of Pakistan's textile exports cannot be kept divorced from the outlook of its cotton produce, which has tended to go through cycles of large and robust growth one year followed by a downturn in the next. Unless issues related to production of cotton are addressed, this cyclical trend is bound to continue with its associated consequences for the textile industry.

The writer is a journalist based in Pakistan.