Pakistan Makes Push for Better Economic Ties
Pakistan is making a big push to grow its apparel and textile industry, which now makes up about 24 percent of the country’s gross domestic product.
To do that, Humayun Akhtar Khan, the country’s minister of commerce, was in Los Angeles Nov. 30 to speak at a luncheon at the Marriott International attended by scores of businesspeople. Previously he had been in Washington, D.C., meeting with U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and U.S. Trade Representative Rob Portman. Khan continued his push to create a bilateral trade agreement between the two countries.
In Los Angeles, Khan spotlighted his country’s textile and apparel industry, which employs 2.3 million Pakistanis.
In the last five years, Pakistan’s exports have grown from $7.8 billion a year to $17 billion a year, Khan said. Cotton textiles and apparel manufacturing accounted for about 70 percent of those exports. About 40 percent of the country’s apparel and textile exports are sent to the United States.
“This is good, but we know we have a long ways to go,” the commerce minister said, noting that the country needs to sustain 6 to 8 percent annual growth to improve the economic condition of the 162 million people who live there. About 32 percent of them live in poverty, according to the U.S. State Department.
Khan said that with relaxed import rules, high-end apparel and textile machinery have been brought in to beef up productivity and efficiency.
Earlier this year, Pakistan launched Expo Pakistan, an annual sourcing show in Karachi that throws a spotlight on the apparel and textile industry, as well as other businesses. —Deborah Belgum
