Pakistan's FCCI to set up textile corner

The Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry plans to establish a textile corner in its research and development cell to see the textile sector adopt and upgrade new technology, with the help of the experts of the National Textile University (NTU). An earlier memorandum of understanding between FCCI and NTU has been upgraded to facilitate this.

According to the new memorandum, the FCCI and NTU will jointly arrange awareness sessions to benefit textile manufacturers. Dr Tanveer Hussain, Rector NTU, said that technology upgrades were a continuous process to survive in the competitive international markets. 
 
A cheque of Rs 0.5 million was presented to NTU by FCCI to carry out the research activities and bring a qualitative improvement in the industry-academia linkage. A delegation of FCCI has visited NTU to discuss different opportunities regarding research and development and capacity building.

The textile industry is the biggest sector in Pakistan, which earns foreign exchange of $12 billion per annum for the country. From this, $6 billion is contributed by the exporters of Faisalabad, said president of FCCI Muhammad Saeed Sheikh. However, textile exports have been declining for the last several years due to an international recession coupled with an energy crisis and inconsistent domestic policies, he added. This was an alarm bell and eye opener for the economic managers which demands immediate remedial measures, he said.
 
Industry-academia linkage is imperative to survive in fast changing economic scenario. In order to bridge the widening gap between industry and academia, the FCCI and NTU have agreed to set up a textile corner which will provide guidance to the exporters to adopt new technologies in order to improve the quality of their products. It will also help in sensitising businessmen to promote value-addition and earn more profit from their exportable surplus. 
 
A few major industrial concerns have established their own dedicated research and development sections to develop new and innovation products.