ISLAMABAD – The Union of Small and Medium Enterprises (UNISAME) urged the federal minister for textiles and industries Abbas Khan Afridi to finalise the forthcoming textile policy to facilitate the SME sector and address the issues of the majority sector diligently.
UNISAME President Zulfikar Thaver in a statement here on Thursday, said that the SME textile sector was the majority sector and played an important part in the economy. He said that the ministry should consult the SMEs in the making of the textile policy as a non-inclusive policy of the sector would leave many important issues of supply chain unattended and the textile sector could not afford to ignore the issue of the SME sector in framing the policy.
“The sector is confronted with energy, law and order, logistics, taxation, financing, marketing support, balancing, modernisation and replacement, import of chemicals, packing materials, technological gap, exchange rate and few other issues which the ministry needs to take cognizance and resolve in the new forthcoming policy without fail”, Zulfiqar remarked. He said that the SME sector was in majority in cotton growing, yarn and thread doubling, fabrics, bleaching, dyeing and printing, bed linen, towels, durries and rugs, dusters, mops, bag making and needs inclusion in the textile policy.
He said that many SMEs were also importing and exporting textile and made ups. The textile industry, he said was the highest foreign exchange earning sector and the big textile industries had the SMEs as their back forte. “The vendors to the big industries are the SMEs and moreover the SMEs play a very important role as the distributors, whole sellers and retailers of the big manufacturers and promote their brands”, he said.
