Finance Minister Ishaq Dar here on Saturday said that government wanted to strengthen the role of textile sector as the leading foreign exchange earner for the country for which joint efforts by the government and the industry itself were required. He made these remarks during an interactive session with representatives of the textile industry, considering their proposals for the budget 2015-16. Chairman FBR, Tariq Bajwa and Advisor Finance Division, Rana Assad Amin were also present. The

People touch specially woven Project Jacquard fabric, in the hands of a small Google team called Advanced Technology and Projects, to control lights or computer screens during a demonstration at Google’s annual developers conference in San Francisco, California on Friday. Google announced that it is working with iconic US jean maker Levi Strauss to make clothing from specially woven fabric with touch-screen control capabilities. — AFP photo Google announced Friday that it was working with ic

One of Sweden’s largest public-private partnerships, Sweden textile water initiative will expand to new countries in Asia and Africa after a successful pilot project in India. Through the initiative, 28 Swedish textile and leather companies have cooperated with Stockholm International Water Institute (SIWI) to catalyse a shift towards sustainable production globally, SIWI said on its website.To achieve this, the initiative has educated suppliers and sub-contractors to help minimize the use of w

The total volume of Egyptian cotton exports witnessed increase during the second quarter of the 2014-15 agricultural season, to reach 246,000 metric quintals, growth by 94.3 percent year-on-year, compared to 126,600 metric quintals exported in the same period during the last season, according to a Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS). Increase in export is attributed to the low Egyptian cotton prices due to the increased inventory of cotton since the previous season.

The government has planned to impose higher tax on export of apparel items for collecting more revenue from the sector, officials of the finance ministry said. They said that tax at source on export of RMG products might be increased to 1.5 per cent, five times higher, from the existing 0.30 per cent in the upcoming national budget for the fiscal year 2015-16. Tax at source at 0.30 per cent is set to expire next month as the government lowered the tax rate in April 2014 for 14 months fro

Bangladesh may emerge as an unlikely saviour for the Indian cotton sector that has been left reeling in the face of low Chinese imports. Indian cotton export is expected to fall to a six-year low as China continues to cut imports. According to government estimates, lesser cotton imports by China may lead to as high as 41 per cent drop in shipments from India this year. China had been the largest importer of Indian cotton in the last three years. Commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman told the R

The export of textile goods grew by a marginal 2pc to $1.08bn in April, according to data released by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics. However, the value-added textile segment managed to grow by an impressive 11pc on a year-on-year (YoY) basis to $607mn. This is mainly attributable to a 4pc yearly depreciation of the rupee and the country’s enhanced market access to the European Union region. The value-added sector benefitted from higher exports of knitwear, bedwear and garments. During

Pakistan, a cotton producing country ranks the eighth largest US cotton importer. The country imported1.69 lakhs of cotton bales from US in the previous fiscal year. In the current fiscal year (2014-15), Pakistan has committed to import more than 3.35 lakh bales from US. Dahlen K Hancock, president of Cotton Council International (CCI) believes there is potential for even greater sales of US cotton to this growing market. CCI, which is the US’s export promotions arm, conducted the trade miss

Overseas work orders for the country’s apparel industry have started to rise, as an apparently calm political situation in the country has restored confidence of global clothing retailers. According to Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) data, the number of taking Utilisation Declaration (UDs) that reflects the trend of production to be performed has increased in April compared to previous months. RMG product manufacturers have taken 2,704 UDs, which were 2,4

Apparel retailer Gap Inc reported an 8 percent fall in quarterly profit, hurt by a stronger dollar, supply delays in the United States and lower demand for its namesake brand. A series of fashion misses have turned shoppers away from the Gap brand towards fast fashion chains such as H&M, Inditex's Zara and Forever 21. The women's clothing business at the Gap brand has been a challenge for several seasons due to quality and fit issues and for being out of trend, Chief Executive Art Peck s