Page 17 - May-June-2020

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PRGMEA stresses

on making value

added textile industry

competitive

Mr Ijaz A. Khokhar, Chief Coordinator PRGMEA has appealed to the govt. to take initiatives to make the value
added textile industry globally competitive and vibrant. He said that the govt. should give focused attention on
sector wise establishment of regional, provincial and central level task force. As a result, the govt. will be aware
Global trade slips to lowest
of the ground realities of each industry.

He said the task force will help the govt. in formulation of future policies which will bring result oriented
changes in export sector of the country. He also suggested the govt. to explore nonconventional international
in recent history, further
markets to boost the exports of the country.

Textile industry value added garments sector has been showing considerable growth despite the challenges.
stagnation projected
The sector, he said, has a huge growth potential. He also stressed to focus on the youth entrepreneurs of the
country to strengthen the national exchequer.

He suggested that a special committee of concerned associations should be constituted for CPEC to take
The global trade has been recorded as the lowest in towards more consumption and services. Whereas,
care of the local industry and investor to reap the benefits of CPEC. He also urged the Chinese govt. to simplify
the recent history with estimated global GDP growth India is set to grow rapidly as its growth model is
visa process for the business community.
to have been 2.9% this year and projected to remain different. However, India’s contribution to global
around 3% for 2020-21, down from the 3.5% rate trade growth will not be enough to substitute for
projected a year ago. Things are not looking to China as a global engine for traditional manufactur-
pick-up in the coming years as economic slowdown ing.
Sri Lanka awaits EU’s approval
is predicted to continue for the foreseeable future. New technologies and their adoption is also playing
Major economic powers are also seeing a slowdown a big role with regards to global economic changes.
for GSP+ concessions
as the GDP growth of the United States is expected Digitalisation is transforming finance, business
to slow to 2% by 2021. Japan and the EU is expect- models and value chains, through three main
ed to be around 0.7 and 1.2% respectively. China’s channels: investment, skills and trade. So far, only a
growth is estimated to continue sliding down to small fraction of businesses appear to have
Mr Nimal Karunathilake- Acting Additional Director
Final papers have been submitted to EU by Sri
around 5.5% by 2021. Other emerging-market successfully adopted the strong productivity poten-
Lanka. The papers are signed by both govt. of
General of the Department of Commerce said that
economies are expected to recover only modestly. tial of digital technologies, which partly explains why
despite the GSP+ utilization rate being relatively low
Indonesia and Sri Lanka. This is to buy fabric from
Indonesia and secure a complete duty wavier digitalisation has been unable to offset other head-
at 55pc, the country cannot rely on EU, UK or USA
Trade restrictions are also playing a major role in the winds on aggregate productivity.
export markets only. According to him, Chinese and
exporting to the EU under the GSP+ concessions.
economic slowdown. Around 1,500 new trade Indian industries will also play a major role in global trade
After the virtual acceptance of the submission, Sri
restrictions have been put in place by G20 econo- There is a need for reducing policy uncertainty,
in years to come. He said that by 2030, China will
Lanka is now waiting for EU’s approval.
mies since 2008 and this trend continues with a rethinking fiscal policy, and acting vigorously to
overcome USA as the largest economy in the world.
surge in trade restrictions in the past two years. address challenges raised by digitalisation and
He said that Sri Lanka needs to explore new
Another joint submission to the EU is on the final
opportunities and needs to sign an FTA with China
stage by South Korea and Sri Lanka to purchase climate change. A look at and changes in all such
The Chinese economy is also structurally changing, factors has the potential to reverse the current
fabric from Korea.
in the near future.
rebalancing away from exports and manufacturing economic trajectory and to ensure future growth.
May/June 2020
November/December 2019