Gohar Ejaz Group clinches all seats in APTMA election

LAHORE, Sep 17 (APP):Dr Gohar Ejaz Group has clinched all the seats in the annual election 2022-23 of All Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) for 14th consecutive year.

In a press conference here at APTMA House on Saturday, the Association’s Secretary General Raza Baqir announced the names of newly-elected office bearers for the central as well as zonal offices.

Asif Inam has been elected as Central Chairman, Rehman Naseem as Senior Vice Chairman, Naveed Ahmed as Vice Chairman and Asad Shafi as Vice Chairman for the value-added sector.

Similarly, Northern Zone’s office-bearers included Hamid Zaman as Chairman, Kamran Arshad as Senior Vice Chairman, Khawaja Muhammad Anees as Vice Chairman and Asad Shafi as Treasurer.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Gohar Ejaz congratulated his group members for securing an unprecedented 14th consecutive victory in the annual elections of APTMA both at centre and zonal levels.

He felicitated the newly elected members of central and zonal managing committees and the office bearers of Northern Zone on their election. He hoped that the newly-elected leadership would work hard to strengthen the export potential of the textile industry.

Gohar said textile exports of the country were stagnant at US $12-13 billion till 2018-19 owing to multiple issues especially energy tariff and non-availability of energy for textile industry. He appraised that consequent to hectic efforts made by his Group led to the approval of regionally competitive energy tariff by the government for export oriented sectors both for electricity and gas.

He said that energy tariff costs not more than 2.67 per cent to the country but contributed to expanding textile exports to US $19.33billion during 2021-22 registering growth of 26 per cent over the preceding year and over 54 per cent in short span of three-year.

Gohar added that new investment of US $5billion had been made in textile sector which had now potential to give exponential growth to textile exports, provided that business-friendly environments were continued to be extended to textile and other export-oriented sectors.

With the view to foster exports and boost up economy of the country, Gohar unveiled his vision for future economy and announced launching of ‘Road to US $50billion Exports’ by moving to stitching sector and conversion of US $3billion yarn and fabrics of the country into value-added garments for exports fetching addition export of US $10billion.

Gohar also announced establishment of Garment Training Centre under the auspices of APTMA to train manpower for employment in vast expanding garment sector. He said that extending of soft term loans of Rs250-300million to trained men and women would inflate exports to more than US $50billion in less than five years leaving no requirement for borrowing loans from foreign donors.

Gohar Ejaz announced establishing National Economic and Business Council consisting of professionals from all fields of economy to analyse economic woes of the country and to prepare blue print for economic revival and development of economic vision for the next ten years.

He reiterated that sustainable export-led economic growth was imperative for development of the country in order to create additional jobs in the country and to earn more foreign exchange for economic stability of the country.

Gohar was hopeful about better cotton crop this year despite heavy rains and floods in the country. He said that offering of global cotton prices to local farmers had grossly helped in enhancing cotton production.

Dr Gohar Ejaz expressed his sympathy with the flood-stricken people and announced contribution of 100,000 ration bags on behalf of APTMA to the flood affectees and vowed to continue their support.

He highly appreciated the outgoing APTMA leadership for leading the industry in critical times especially during the Covid pandemic and fiscal and energy constraints. He hoped that the incoming elected office-bearers and members of managing committees would accelerate their efforts in promoting textile exports from the country and for economic uplift of Pakistan.

Chairman APTMA North Zone Hamid Zaman said the APTMA has decided to digitise the Association and make it a paperless organisation. Also, he said, Cotton Foundation would be activated besides establishing Cotton Excellence Centre, a lab for testing cotton etc with foreign accreditation.

Central Chairman APTMA Asif Inam, Asad Sharif and Kamran Arshad spoke on the occasion and paid glowing tributes to the tireless efforts of Dr Gohar Ejaz in achieving the export target. They sought his guidance for the future growth of the industry.

The immediate past Chairman Abdul Rahim Nasir paid special thanks to the Patron-in-Chief and the APTMA management for their full support throughout his tenure as chairman APTMA. He wished good luck and a successful journey ahead to the new chairman and his team.