Shamsul Islam Naz

by
Dr. H.R. Sheikh
Professor, Textile Institute of Pakistan

Employment prospects for textile graduates and diploma holders are directly related to the health of the textile industry and are determined by the crisis or the boom periods. Since the mid-nineties the industry has been suffering from a period of crisis due to slump and recession in the international market, high interest rates, high inflation and high cost of inputs in the local market especially unprecedented escalation in cotton prices on account of continuously declining cotton production from 10.583 million bales (170kg) in 1995-96 to 8.20 million bales in 1998-99. Since the cost of cotton contributes about 65% of the total yarn manufacturing cost depending upon the count of yarn being spun the spinning sector became sick and unviable! The year 1999 dawned with more than 2.0 million spindles out of operation. The situation in the powerloom sector and the ancillary textile industries was reported to be similar. Consequently, the demand for qualified and trained textile graduates and diploma holders remained slack during the period 1995-96 to 1998-99. Qualified and trained textile personnel faced tremendous difficulties in getting suitable jobs!

Cotton production of 8.20 million bales in 1998-99 being the lowest for the period 1995/96 to 1998/99 posed a threat to the cotton economy of Pakistan. The concerned agencies met the challenge by devising and implementing a strategy which restored cotton production to a satisfactory level of about 10.50 million bales in 1999-2000. This represented an improvement of about 28% within one year and saved the fragile one crop economy of the country!

The bumper cotton production of 1999-2000 coupled with sharp increases of cotton production in major cotton producing countries of the world such as USA, China, India brought down cotton prices in Pakistan to very low level of Rs. 1400/- per maund. This was a significant development for the sick spinning sector of the textile industry which became viable and profitable after a period of about a decade. The viability of the spinning operations immediately reflected in enabling the closed spinning mills to restart about 0.5 million closed spindles. The reactivation of the closed capacity in the spinning and other textile sectors has generated jobs for workers as well for qualified and trained textile personnel. As a result of improvement in working capacity of textile sectors and some other developments which are taking place the employment prospects for textile graduates and diploma holders are brightening up. The nature and magnitude of these developments within Pakistan, at international level and their effects on the job market are discussed in the following paragraphs:-

According to the T.C.O. the number of spinning units in Pakistan is 503 with an installed capacity of 8.73 million spindles out of this only about 6.6 million spindles were in operation on 30th June, 1999, about 2.13 million spindles were closed. Similarly out of 166,365 rotors installed only 67,589 were in operation and 98,776 (59.37%) rotors were closed.

Similarly, out of 9,876 looms installed in composite mills only 4471 were in operation and 5405 looms were closed in the mills sector. In the non-mill sector All Pakistan Cloth Exporters Association (APCEA) reports closure of 45,000 power looms out of an installed capacity of about 152,000 power looms.

The Government of Pakistan has been endeavouring persistently to revive the closed units and has been offering incentives, relief, packages, trade policy measures to the textile industry as well as the ancillary textile industry. However, these measures failed to produce the desired results mainly due to continuous crop failure since 1991-92 with the exception of 1995-96, short supply of cotton and exorbitant cotton prices making the spinning operations unviable!
The bumper cotton crop of about 10.5 million bales has enabled the spinning sector of the industry to stage a turn around. As already mentioned about 0.5 million closed spindles have already been reactivated. The problems of 189 closed units worth Rs.11.60 billion received attention at the highest level of the government of Pakistan. Most of these units are sick textile units. The cases of 69 closed units have already been finalised for revival. The revival of another 15 closed units is under active consideration of the committee for revival of sick units / CRIC.

Recent improvement in the supply position of cotton and withdrawal of 15% excise duty on import of cotton below 28 mm in staple length proposed by APTMA has accelerated the process of revival of sick units. If out of a total of 152 mills reported closed by APTMA, only 30 textile units are revived every year and start operations, job opportunities for a couple of hundred textile graduates and diploma holders will be generated besides employment of thousands of workers!

1.2 BMR Programmes

Muhammed Aslam [1] reports that a massive BMR programmes is already under implementation in the textile industry to replace old, obsolete spinning and weaving machines with automatic modern machines and thus develop capacity to cater the market demand in the new millennium. APTMA members plan to spend an additional amount of US$ 500 million by December, 2000 on the import of modern textile equipment to replace old spindles and looms in textile units established several decades ago. Order amounting to US$ 450 million have already been placed with renowned world manufacturers of ring frames, jet looms etc.

Mohiuddin Azam [2] reports that a long term textile policy termed Textile Vision 2005 is in the final stages of preparation. The policy aims to prepare the textile industry of Pakistan to compete in a market free from quotas and other restrictions by the year 2005. Under this policy the SBP is finalising a strategy to make adequate project finance available to the textile industry at 14% mark-up for its BMR programme estimated to cost at least Rs. 333 billion in the next five years.
The textile industry will require the services of qualified and experienced textile personnel for the smooth and successful upgradation of its production facilities under the respective BMR programmes most of which include import and installation of combing equipment for production of fine and superfine yarn counts as well compact spinning systems. Generation of strong demand for textile graduates and diploma holders will be logical outcome of this activity.

1.3 Expansion of Installed Capacity

The population of Pakistan in the year 2000 is reported to be 137.50 million increasing at the rate of 2.20%. By the year 2005, population is expected to rise to 153.06 million. The cumulative increase in population for the five year period works out at about 11.5%. As clothing is the basic need of mankind, expansion in the installed capacities of all sectors of the textile industry is urgently required, planning for which must be started immediately by the concerned government agencies in consultation with associations of textile trade and industry especially APTMA the apex body of 400 spinning and composite textile units.

Another factor which calls for urgent expansion of the textile industry has international dimensions. Population in other developed and developing countries will also increase. Per capita income is also expected to increase in all countries especially the developed countries. This will increase demand for yarn and cloth in the international export market significantly. The textile industry in Pakistan should gear itself up, expand its production facilities in time, move aggressively in the export market to capture a sizeable portion of the increamental demand for yarn, cloth, value-added textile products etc. in the coming years besides satisfying the rising local demand. A conservative estimate of the expansion required in all sectors ie. Spinning, weaving (composite, independent, terry towel and powerloom sectors), knitting, finishing, garments and other made-up sectors is about 20% of the existing installed capacities. Thus, in the next five years job opportunities are expected to be available for hundreds of textile graduates, diploma holders and thousands of workers.

However, it must be pointed out that no expansion in the spinning and other sectors can be contemplated without corresponding increase in cotton production as reliance on imported cotton cannot be recommended. In this context, disclosure by the renowned scientist Dr. Samar Mubarakmand [3] that PAEC is presently developing 3 varieties of high yielding, pest resistant cotton seeds which are also adjustable to varying degrees of environmental changes is highly encouraging. The important information given at a luncheon meeting with Mr. Mohsin Aziz, Chairman APTMA has important implication for cotton production in Pakistan. The three varieties of seeds under development at the Nuclear Institute of Agriculture at Tandojam, Nuclear Institute of Agriculture and Biology at Faisalabad and Nuclear Institute of Bio-Genetic Engineering at Multan are of NIAB-98, Karisma and NIAB-999 cotton varieties respectively. The cotton output target of 15 million cotton bales is expected to be achieved after the release of these seeds for general cultivation in a couple of years. Since our nuclear and agricultural scientists and cotton breaders are alive to the need for raising cotton output in sufficient proportions to meet the expansion requirement of the textile industry, the latter should go ahead with its expansion plans without further delay.

1.4 Promotion of Value-added Exports

Textile exports constitute about 65% of the value of total exports from Pakistan. Since 1995-96 the exports of textile manufacturers remained stagnant at about 5.50 billion US$, declined to 4.9733 billion US$ in 1998-99 and bounced back to about 5.50 billion US$ in 1999-2000. However, the statistics issued by the Export Promotion Bureau show a decline in the textile exports to the tune of about US$ 120 million in the month of July, 2000 as compared to the value in June, 2000. The declining trend in textile exports is a cause of concern to the textile industry. In fact, most technical and financial experts are of the opinion that a break through in textile exports can be achieved only by the promotion of value-added exports!

One of the major obstacle in increasing the amount of value-added exports is the low unit price realisation of exports from Pakistan as compared to its competitors. On the average the price realised by Pakistan per unit as compared to that by India is lower by about 50% for knitwear, 22% for terry towels and more than 100% for ready-made garments. Mrs. Ingrid Eckert [4] a member of Pakistan German Business Forum thinks that Pakistan should build up its image as a producer of high quality textile products at competitive prices in order to boost its exports in general and value-added exports in particular. She also called for education of textile workers from grass roots to management levels.

Textile industry of Pakistan needs to focus its attention on the following aspects of manufacture of value-added products for improvement of quality:

1.41    Selection of correct machines and machinery sequence for the job in hand.1.42    Selection of raw-material of correct quality with reference to the required quality of end products.
1.43    Installation of total quality management system and monitoring of product quality at each production stage against standards.
1.44    Following a standard procedure of dealing with non-conforming products.
1.45    Operation of a preventive maintenance system to keep the machinery in top most mechanical condition.
1.46    Confidence to assure the clients that the products will not only meet their specifications but also their performance criteria.
1.47    Availing Universal Internet Access Scheme of the GoP at present available in 92 cities but likely to be extended to 400 cities within a year for marketing of value-added products through e-commerce techniques.
The foregoing brief list of conditions for producing top quality products to realise better unit prices in the export market at par with those realised by its competitors calls upon the textile industry of Pakistan to employ textile graduates on all key management positions, diploma holders for assisting the graduates and performing supervisory roles.

1.5 Gaining a Competitive Edge

Textile Manufacturers all over the world are constantly endeavouring to gain an edge over their competitors so that they can market their products of the required quality at more competitive prices, continue to get repeat orders from their clients and thus remain in business. The textile manufacturers of Pakistan have also adopted the same strategy.

Competitive edge is gained by achieving higher operational efficiency, process productivity and yield as compared to the competitors without sacrificing product quality. Spinning mills improve their yield by spinning more yarn per kilogram of cotton, weaving mills by weaving more cloth per kilogram of yarn, wet processing mills by dyeing, printing and finishing more meters of fabrics per kilogram of the recipe ingredients.

A manufacturers who gains a competitive edge enjoys greater margin in negotiating sale price of his products for a given quality. An idea of how much margin becomes available by gaining a competitive edge is given by the following statistics pertaining to two competing spinning mills producing a nominal yarn count of 21 Ne.

It would be seen from the foregoing statistics that negotiating margin of Rs. 8.50/10 Lbs of yarn is available to the spinning mill A which can market its 21′s yarn at say Rs. 5.00 per 10 LBs cheaper than the spinning mill B and still return a profit of Rs. 3.50/10 Lbs. Obviously this advantage accrues to mill A on account of producing the yarn of equivalent quality at 1% higher operational efficiency and 2% higher yield as compared to mill B. However, these advantages can only be achieved by utilising the services of trained textile graduates at managerial levels, diploma holders at supervisory levels and skilled workers at floor levels. Higher yields can only be achieved if trained workers are employed for skilled jobs.

Now-a-days most textile mills of Pakistan arrange on the job training for their workers for which in-plant facilities are specially established. The training is usually carried out under the supervision of a textile graduates.

1.6 Compliance with NEQs/ISO-14000

Pakistan Environmental Protection agency (PEPA) was set up in 1997 and has since finalised NEQS relating to gas emissions and water effluents.

In compliance with these standards the industries are required to submit monthly reports giving quantitative estimates of BOD, COD cr and copper in case of waste water and CO, So, No concentrations in case of gaseous emissions on the basis of measurements carried out by an EBAE certified laboratory.

According to Munir Ahmed [5] 16 pollutants of gas emissions and 32 characteristics of water effluents which affect NEQS have been identified. However, progress on compliance with NEQS remains slow to date because of self assessment option available to the industries and relaxed enforcement of NEQS. Moreover, these NEQS mainly relate to harmful gas emissions and waste water effluents of the wet processing units and exclude from their purview hazards to which workers in the spinning and the weaving sectors are exposed on account of pollution created by dust, fly and noise.

The existing set of NEQS should be enlarged to include standards on safe concentration limits of dust in air streams of production departments as well as safe noise levels as has been done by OSHA of U.S.A.

Inspite of the efforts of the PEPA and the EBAE, wet processing mills, by and large, do not control gaseous emissions harmful to the workers and continue to discharge untreated waste water effluents leading to deterioration of valuable agricultural lands and contamination of sub-soil water reservoirs!

National Institute of Bio-technology, Faisalabad analysed water samples collected from in and around the rural town of Manga on receiving a directive from the Governor of Punjab. A total of 16 samples were analysed by experts. The PH values ranged from 6.6 to 8.8 and fluoride ppm from 1 to 15. The consumption of this water was declared harmful for both humans and animals because contamination of fluoride is toxic for living organisms.

In order to check the impact of fluoride contamination, blood samples of animals in Manga Mandi were tested by a team of veterinary experts of Lahore Veterinary College under a directive of the Punjab Government. Dr. Riaz Hussain Qureshi of the University of Agriculture, Faisalabad confirmed that bone deformation of animals was detected.

The experts are of the opinion that high values of PH in water increase the risk of disease like cancer, TB, hepatitis and can also cause respiratory and stomach problems.

Untreated effluents are also being discharged by textile processing mills, leather tanning mills, chemical manufacturing units in almost all urban and rural areas of the country causing irreparable damage to environments!

In order to remedy the foregoing alarming situation, Mr. Ali Khan [7] an ISO expert suggests the following action plan to improve compliance with ISO-14000 in general and NEQS in particular:-

1.61    critical examination of the existing processing techniques, listing key areas in order of priority which need improvement.
1.62    commitment of the management to environmental protection in its environment policy should be declared with reference to regulatory requirements of ISO-14000/NEQS.
1.63    Environmental effects of the existing processes with refernece to NEQS should be evaluated, potential risks to environments identified.
1.64    The C.E. should be directly involved and committed to the aims and objects of the environmental policy. He should develop or acquire a standard management capable of monitoring day to day progress.
1.65    Schemes for the training of employees should be launched and procedures should be developed.
1.66    An internal audit of the policies, procedures and practices should be conducted and gaps found with reference to the regulatory requirements of ISO-14000/NEQS clauses should be eliminated.

Obviously, for handling the above listed jobs and ensuring compliance of wet processing mills with ISO-14000/NEQS experienced textile graduates are required for managerial positions, diploma holders for assistant supervisory roles and in-plant trained workers for floor jobs.

2.0 External Developments

2.1    Oko-Tex Standard 100 . (banned azo-dyes and amines).
General public in the developed countries especially Europe favours the use of ecologically safe textiles and garments. Ecological safe textile products can be manufactured by chlorine free bleaching, careful selection and application of dyeing pigments, minimum use of formaldehyde, freedom from heavy metal and pesticides. R. Frietag [8] divides textile ecology into three parts, i.e production, disposal and human ecology. Production ecology relates to the manufacture of environment friendly fibres, textiles and garments ensuring conservation of air, water purity, waste treatment and protection against noise during the production processes. Disposal ecology concept is based on disposal of textile products by recycling or decomposition or thermal elimination without release of harmful substances and without endangering the conservation of air purity. Human ecology concentrates on prevention of concentration of substances in textiles which could induce dangerous effects on users of textiles during normal wear.

The user is primarily concerned with the foregoing aspects of human ecology and likes to be assured that the textiles and clothing being used by him are free from undesirable and harmful substances. The “Oko-Tex Standard 100″ includes analysis of known harmful substances, which present problems to human ecology, prescribes for each substance a limit value determined scientifically. When the textile product meets all the conditions prescribed by the standard, applicant is awarded the authorisation to label his product as being:-

“Passed for harmful substances according to Oko-Tex Standard 100″. Entry of the textile products from developing countries such as Pakistan into Europe is now-a-days subject to the products carrying this label. Pakistan textile manufacturers and exporters can get their textile products tested at the Eco-textile Laboratory of the Synthetic Fibre Development and Application Centre to know whether their products satisfy the prescribed requirements and can be exported without risk of rejection.

Needless to say that the foregoing highly technical job can be managed by experienced textile graduates and diploma holders.

2.2 ISO-9000 Certification, Challenges of WTO

In developed as well as developing countries, the decision of the consumer to accept a textile product is based on product quality and competitive price. Textile manufacturers in Pakistan and other developing countries are required to adopt management systems which conform to the requirements of ISO-9000. In fact, ISO-9000 certification is now a mandatory pre-requisite for all textile manufacturers who want to participate in the world markets. A major benefit of ISO-9000 certification for a Pakistani manufacturers is the confidence of the foreign buyers that, he is considering the purchase of products which have been produced under standard quality management system. Essential requirements which a textile manufacturer must fulfil in order to qualify for the relevant ISO-9000 certification was given by Dr. Richard J. Murphy [9] are listed as follows:-

a    Delegation of authority from the chief executive down to the floor level.
b    Diffusion of decision making, empowering qualified, educated and experienced persons to make decisions within a system.
c    Basing the management of the company on documented systems which render performance predictable.
d    Installation of a quality management system with an in-built procedure for taking preventive and corrective action to eliminate manufacture of non-conforming products thereby reducing manufacturing waste.
e    Correct planning and allocation of resources by operating a documented quality management system.
f    Verification of the qualifications and experience of each and every employee with reference to the duties assigned to him/her. If these are found inadequate for the task he/she must perform arrangements for training of such employees must exist within the plant.
g    All products being manufactured must be identified by a well documented, labelling/tagging system.
h    Ensuring cleanliness within and around the mill premises which is a pre-requisite for good management.
i    All departmental managers would be provided with a copy of the relevant ISO-9000 i.e ISO-9002 in the case of spinning, weaving or wet processing mills. They should carefully read and understand the requirements of the 20 clauses and how these can be complied with.
j    A qualified and trained technical person preferably a textile graduate should be appointed as a management representative to organise and develop a standard quality management system on behalf of the C.E. and maintain it once it is operational. He should also be capable of organising a team for attending to the implementation of the system.
k    The chief executive should be directly involved and fully committed to the aims and objects of the ISO-9000 quality management system. He should hold monthly meetings to review the progress in the implementation of the system. When all the requirements of the relevant ISO-9000 have been fulfilled the company should apply for certification. Once certified, the company will in fact win an “entry ticket” to participate in world markets.
Out of a total of about 729 textile units in the various sectors of the textile industry, only about 250 units have obtained the relevant ISO-9000 quality system certification. Thus, 479 textile units are operating without ISO-9000 certification at present. With the commencement of the world trade order in 2005, all world markets will be open for free trade. Pakistani manufacturers will be able to export their products only on the basis of quality and competitive price. Thus, the WTO poses a challenge as well offers an opportunity. Pakistani textile manufacturers should move fast and prepare themselves well in time by paying attention to all aspects of their operations such as the requirements of ISO-9000 – Certification, BMR programmes, expansion wherever required, value-addition of their products, gaining a competitive edge over competitors, compliance with ISO-9000 and Eco-Labelling of their products etc.
Acquisition of competitive ability will be in proportion to how thorough has been the preparation with respect to the operational and managerial aspects mentioned above. Achieving the required standard of competitive ability calls for input of textile graduates, diploma holders and skilled workers at respective managerial, technical, engineering, supervisory material handling, machine tending, floor jobs etc.

The Textile Industry of Pakistan is passing through a critical phase of its history. Foreign buyers are much more quality conscious today than ever before and only accept products of the quality required by them.
In order to meet the demands of the foreign buyers in respect of credibility, consistancy and continuity of product quality the textile manufacturers must secure the services of the right type of textile graduates, diploma holders for managing their operations.

The demand for qualified and experienced textile personnel is expected to rise sharply in view of the internal and external developments already discussed. Break-up of this demand may be seen in Appendix No.1. A comparison of the demand statistic with the supply figures given in part I of this paper clearly proves that the production of qualified and trained textile personnel annually falls short of the annual requirements of the textile industry.

References

1.    Muhammed Aslam, “Modernisation and balancing of industry”, Business and Economic Review, Dawn dated 8/5/2000.
2.    Mohiuddin Azam, “Floating rate for BMR under study”, Dawn dated 21/6/2000.
3.    Dr. Samar Mubarakmand, “Cotton output target of 15 million bales”, Dawn dated 05/07/2000.
4.    Mrs. Ingrid Eckert, Presentation at Pakistan German Business Forum recently.
5.    Mr. Munir Ahmed, Lecture delivered at the Seminar on “Environmental Standards: a challenge for Pakistan’s Textile Industry”, on 24/10/1998.
6.    Mr. Shamsul Islam Naz, ” NIQBE detects flouride in Manga water also”,. Dawn dated 20/08/2000
7.    Mr. Ali Khan, “The next step ISO-14000″. Lecture delivered at Seminar Environmental Standards a challenge for Pakistan’s Textile Industry”, on 24/10/1998.
8.    Mr. R. Frietag, ” Testing of harmful substances in textiles – Oko-Tex Standard – 100″, paper presented in SFDAC seminar, Pakistan Textile Journal, November 1998.
9.    Dr. Richard J. Murphy, “The implementation of ISO-9000 in the textile industry, benefits and strategy”, paper presented at the International Textile conference on “Fifty years of Textile Industry – Achievement and Future Challenges”. Pakistan Golden Jubilee Celebrations 1947-1997.