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Meeting to evolve

long-term textile

policy today

MUZAFFAR QURESHI

KARACHI: The first meeting of the textile industry on ' long term textile policy' will be held on January 25 in Islamabad under the chairmanship of Abdul Razak Dawood, minister of industries, production and commerce.

The meeting which will be attended by textile wizards in the private and public sectors is intended to generate discussions to formulate a long term textile policy which will prepare the textile exporters for the year 2005 when all textile quotas will be phased out under the new World Trade Order (WTO).

Abdul Razak Teli, Chairman, Quota Textile Council, told Business Recorder that a free and frank discussion on the long term textile policy was needed to elicit the private sector's views on the policy.

The meeting is expected to form different working groups to give their recommendations on various aspects of the textile sector including textile investments, technical know-how, and development of skills to ensure quality of the indigenous textile products meant for export in future.

The deliberations will take stock of weaknesses and deficiencies in the local textile industry and will recommend a more aggressive textile quota policy to be enforced with the start of 2001 so that the exporters can be gradually prepared for the textile quota-free era by 2005.

Those wizards invited to participate in the deliberations are Humayoun Elahi (Aptma); Jhangir Monnoo, Shahid Abdullah, Jahangir Elahi, Omar Mansha, Rana Abdul Khaliq, Mohammed Latif, Iqbal Ibrahim, M. Anwer, Bashir Alymohammad, Shabir Ahmed, Pervaiz Hanif, Wajid Jawad, Javed Chinoy, Kh Belal Ahmed, Aziz Memon, M Ahsan, S M Obaid, Razak Teli, Tahir Jahangir, Shiekh Mohmmad Saeed, Dr Ahsanulla (Smeda) and Shah Mahmood Qureshi.