Investment in Pakistan

The textile sector needs massive investments in the value added sector to face the challenges of the post 2005 qouta free regime. Common belief in Pakistan is that the sector is quite vibrant and is investing heavily. While it is true that there have been substantial investments in the sector as a whole, bulk of the investments are in the spinning and weaving sectors and not enough is being invested in the value added sectors of finishing and stitching.

In the following brief presentation the impediments will be highlighted but a general structure of the industry as it stands today needs to be understood before the problems can be understood.

The spinning sector is a very mature and competitive sector. Pakistan today is a net importer of raw cotton. Every thing from Australian cotton, Egyptian cotton to US Pima is imported. In fact Pakistan today is the second largest importer of US Pima long staple cotton. This goes to show how competitive this industry has become. The weaving ...