Textile industry's growth path has been topsy-turvy due to hurdles like market access, infrastructural controls, political concerns of foreign investors and high inflation rates that ruled throughout 2005, during the first year after elimination of the Multi-Fibre Agreement (MFA).
Despite the fact that China, India and Pakistan would be leading textile industry in quota-free realm, performance of Pakistan was not satisfactory even after a notable growth both in terms of expansion and exports.
It was also being feared at the start of 2005 that prices could come down to 15 percent due to the transitional period from the quota to the non-quota regime.
And such fears have come true in case of Pakistan where per unit prices came down crashing by 10 to 15 percent.
Issues like removal of General System of Preferences (GSP) by the European Commission, together with imposition of anti-dumping, affected the growth of textile industry in Pakistan when compared with China and India.
Particularly affected were the small players who were unprepared for the change in this world order and as a result, about 90 units in knitwear sector closed down their operations by the end of 2005.
marketing@alchempro.com
