Korea assures support to Pakistani textiles industry

KARACHI: The Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) has assured to support the textile industry of Pakistan in promoting manufacturing and export of non-woven fabric and technical textiles, a statement said on Wednesday.

A five members delegation of KOICA visited All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (Aptma) Lahore office where it held discussions with the senior Aptma management and leading textile manufacturers on the scope of promoting technical textiles.

The delegation informed that KOICA is a donor agency, working closely with National Textile University (NTU) Faisalabad to promote non-woven textile fabrics and technical textiles.

Asad Shafi, an official of Aptma gave a detailed presentation on textile industry in general and prospects of non-woven textile industry in Pakistan.

He appreciated the establishment of the testing laboratory by KOICA at NTU, Faisalabad in the first phase of cooperation and lauded the launching of the second phase aimed at providing research and development facilities, advance testing and support to the potential investors.

Shafi expressed hope that the KOICA’s offer would go a long way to enhance Pakistan’s meagre share of 0.2 per cent in the $200 billion global market of technical textiles.

Presently around 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 informed, saying that he is confident that the support of KOICA would encourage large scale manufacturing of technical textiles in Pakistan.

The Aptma official said that 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.

He appreciated the role of National Textile University for setting up Pak-Korea Technical Textile Centre, saying that the centre is helping not only the existing industry to shift to these textiles but also to establish startups since the emergence of highly value added, high performance technical textiles.

The Korean delegation’s head Jinil Kim briefed the participants about the activities and projects undertaken by KOICA, saying that the KOICA is considering the launching of the second phase in collaboration with the NTU, Faisalabad.

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 startups in technical sectors and facilitate domestic and export market development for technical textiles, he added.

Kim said that the second phase would mostly cover research and development, sophisticated testing laboratory, market access, technical know-how, capacity building, state of the art testing equipment, consultancy services and development of international linkages.

Asad Shafi, Shahzad Ahmed Sheikh, Haroon Elahi, Ismail Farid and Umair Abid from Aptma along with Secretary General Raza Baqir were also present at the occasion.

Aptma’s senior leader Haroon Elahi, presented a vote of thanks to the visiting delegation at the end of the meeting, while expressing hope that the cooperation and assistance by the Korean authorities would give a fillip to the local nascent technical textile industry and grossly contribute to upsurge Pakistan’s share in the global technical textiles market.