Introduction

In the last 20 years the sophistication of Pakistan exports of textiles and garments has decreased despite the sector receiving a large amount of public support in terms of various subsidies, tariff protection and other schemes. The purpose of this consultancy is to investigate this apparent paradox between continued public support and lack of performance in exports of more sophisticated products. The consultancy undertakes two key components: 1. Interviewing a range of firms in the sector with a focus on challenges and constraints in achieving a high level of higher value exports; 2. Undertake detailed trade analysis of a range of chosen SITC sectors to quantify and understand more fully Pakistans actual trade performance in these sectors.

Background
The Pakistan textile industry total export is around 9.6 billion US dollars. The textile industry contributes approximately 46 percent to the total output or 8.5 percent of the country GDP. In Asia, Pakistan is the 8th largest exporter of textile products providing employment to 38 percent of the work force in the country. However, the textile industry currently faces massive challenges. The All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) needs to enhance the quality of its products. However, APTMA argues other factors such as high interest rates and cost of inputs, nonconductive government policies, and non-guaranteed energy supplies hinder their competitiveness.

Benefit of the Study

The research will help us identify the reasons as to why the manufacturers of garment products are not following the recommended strategies put forward for them in order to prosper in the era of free trade. The study will help point out issues and hindrances faced by the manufacturers and their vi ews i n regards to improving the situation. This would help out in perhaps formulation of another Textile Vision manual which would be a more refined version and thus we believe would point to strategies which will help the Pakistani market differentiate from other exporting markets and thus emerge as a leader in textile exports. Another benefit that we initially did not visualize was that conducting this study will help us reveal the missing link between the sectors, why it is that all the sectors

(primary, secondary and tertiary) of textiles are not properly aligned so as to provide both stability and continued sustenance to the field? This last point we believe now has been the major cause of holding the industry back, as a competitive environment, we require professionalism and integration which is not being achieved due to the lacking of this alignment.

Limitations
Lack of time People not so co operative Lack of professional expertise Lack of availability of published data