Call for reviewing export policy to boost Pakistani apparels.

ISLAMABAD, October 27, 2009 (Balochistan Times): Fashion designer Ayesha Shiraz Monday called for reviewing the countrys export policy, saying that unplanned and unrestricted export of cotton and cotton yarn would have an adverse effect on the export of Pakistans value-added apparels and garments. On her return from a weeklong visit of Dubai and other UAE states where she successfully launched her winter outfits, the Fashion icon told mediamen here that the constant export of these items has already pushed up their prices to new heights, ultimately increasing the cost of production at home and making it difficult to export our value added products. The irony is that the cotton yarn is being exported to our competing countries, which amounts to arming them for competing us in the finished product market. We should measure our success not by the number of cotton bales we have exported but by the amount of foreign exchange we have earned through our textile exports, she remarked. Answering to a question, the female fashion designer said the value-added apparel sector was converting raw cotton of 67 cents a pound into value-added finished goods worth $ five to $ six a piece earning valuable foreign exchange for the country. India and China also export cotton and cotton yarn but they give regard to the requirement of value added textile exporters and export only after determining the volume of crop and the exportable surplus, ensuring that the requirement of their value added textile exporters are properly met. Why cant we plan like this, she argued.

(THROUGH ASIA PULSE)