Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) has assured All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) to provide all technical and financial support to the textile industry of Pakistan in promoting manufacture and export of non-woven fabric and technical textiles, Profit learnt here on Wednesday.
According to details, a five members delegation of KOICA visited APTMA Lahore office and had discussions with senior APTMA management and leading textile manufacturers and the scope of promoting technical textiles.
They informed that KOICA was a donor agency, working closely with National Textile University (NTU) Faisalabad to promote non-woven textile fabrics and technical textiles.
However, the APTMA management Asad Shafi, Shahzad Ahmed Sheikh, Haroon Elahi, Ismail Farid, Umair Abid and Secretary General APTMA, Raza Baqir welcomed the delegation at APTMA House, Lahore.
On this occasion, Shafi made a detailed presentation on textile industry in general and prospects of non-woven textile industry in Pakistan and appreciated the establishment of testing laboratory by KOICA at NTU, Faisalabad in the first phase of cooperation and lauded the launching of the second phase aimed at providing R&D facilities, advance testing and support to the potential investors.
Shafi hoped that this generous offer from KOICA would go a long way to enhance Pakistan’s meagre share of 0.2 percent in the $200 billion global market of technical textiles.
He also said that presently not more than 200 manufactures, mostly small and medium sized companies based in Sialkot, Gujranwala, Faisalabad, Lahore and Karachi are engaged in the production of non-woven fabrics at small scale.
He believed that the support of KOICA would encourage large scale manufacturing of technical textiles in Pakistan.
“Low cost of doing business, reliable suppliers of commodity raw material, high local demand of diverse products, possibility to acquire technical know-how and good infrastructure in the country are promising features of technical textile in Pakistan. The growing local demand, high export potential, industrial growth and foreign investment offer great opportunities in the field of technical textile in Pakistan,” he said.
Speaking on this occasion, Jinil Kim, head of the Korean delegation briefed the participants about the activities and projects undertaken by KOICA.
He informed that they encouraged by the success of the first phase and KOICA was seriously considering launching the second phase in collaboration with NTU, Faisalabad.
Kim continued that the next phase of the project would ensure the establishment and growth of the Technical Textiles industry in Pakistan and provide support to the business start-ups in technical sectors and facilitate domestic and export market development for technical textiles.
Kim added that the second phase would mostly cover Research & Development, sophisticated testing laboratory, market access, technical know-how, capacity building, state of the art testing equipment, consultancy services and development of international linkages.
