Four textile industry leaders have been invited for the regional chambers of commerce roundtable conference on 'Normalizing India-Pakistan Trade' on November 26 at Karachi. The roundtable is being organized jointly by Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), New Delhi, the Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FPand the Institute of Business Administration (IBA).
Challenges in Indo-Pak trade and economic cooperation, textiles, banking and non-tariff barriers to trade and trade in agriculture will be the topics discussed. For the first time in the history of Indian synthetic and rayon textile export, Pakistan has emerged as the leading market for fabrics and filament yarn surpassing US and Saudi Arabia. As per the latest figures from the textile ministry, man-made fabric and yarn export to Pakistan has increased by 25 per cent in 2012-13 at Rs 21 crores compared to Rs 16 crores in the previous year.
Owing to deeper business ties between traders in Karachi and Surat, around 60 per cent of contribution in the export to Pakistan has come from the MMF industry in Surat. The Surti traders exported dress material, saris, fabrics worth Rs 11 crores to Karachi, Peshawar and Lahore.
Manghani, the former president, Federation of Surat Textile Traders Association (FOSTTA) said, "There is still a huge scope of increasing textile trade between Surat and Pakistan. Our fabrics are in huge demand, but there are certain issues that need to be addressed."
