The Engineering Development Board (EDB) which organized the workshop was attended by various industry heads and government officials. Zaheeruddin Dar, Chairman of DART, a consulting firm which is associated with the formation of NEEDS presented 29 point proposal draft at the workshop including the establishment of EXIM bank, trade promotions and industry specific training institutions.

While addressing the workshop, Governor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Owais Ahmed Ghani said that despite insurgency, great opportunities in the engineering and technological industrial sectors awaited Pakistan. It should be noted, the recently concluded Pak-US Trade and Investment Council had remarked that due to efforts of Pakistan to combat terrorism, it has suffered huge losses and its export competitiveness declined considerably.

Razzaq Dawood, one of the business leaders told that if Pakistan desired to achieve the $70bn export target it had to integrate engineering, chemical and information technology (IT) development at par with textiles. In response, Minister for Industries and Production, Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani assured that his government would bring about necessary changes to facilitate the engineering industry to play its due role. Furthermore, engineering sector’s significant growth last year when exports of Pakistan decreased by 11 percent also compels the Gilani administration to give equal priority for other key sectors apart from textiles.

The NEEDS has chalked out plans to energize the industry from its $800mn exports to $10bn in next 15yrs through the implementation of the proposal draft. It has identified Central Africa and Latin America as potential markets and Pakistan has the ability to tap more than $165bn market through right approach. It has also observed the country’s engineering products had good demand in international markets owing to their price competitiveness, and all they needed was extra support from the government to exploit the export opportunities overseas.

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According to sources, the US cotton industry, the largest producer is experiencing unexpected orders from China and Bangladesh. This new development at the cotton front has also pushed up demand for West African cotton. If the ban sustains for a longer period it may even help Australia and Brazil to chip in to the demands of the Asian buyers.

The global prices of cotton also witnessed sudden rise soon after the announcement of India’s ban on its cotton exports, a decision made to mitigate domestic yarn spinners’ woes. China, Bangladesh and Pakistan rely on India particularly due to low prices and inexpensive procurement overheads.

China is the largest importer of cotton, and its imports are estimated at 9.5mn bales per annum. Furthermore, China’s cotton demand is mainly met through the supplies from Indian cotton growers. Until India takes a review on the ban in favor of exports, which it does based on periodical production status; China along with other countries will have to procure cotton for higher prices.

But the Cotton Association of India fears that the ban may damage the reputation of India as an authentic source for cotton procurement in the future. Moreover, it is not clear how India’s cotton shipments would double to some 8mn bales by September this year as last month forecast by India’s Cotton Advisory Board (CAB).

Some figures show the US, Brazil and Pakistan have no surplus cotton, while China’s cotton acreage has dipped 10 percent this year. As per CAB, India has estimated cotton crop close to 30mn bales for 2009-10.

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