March 7, 2019 (MLN): Senate Standing Committee on Commerce and Textile Industry in its meeting has recommended to bring Pakistan Cotton Research Centre back under the control of Textile Industry Division from Ministry of National Food Security & Research since the Textile Industry division is a more relevant ministry to oversee cotton research.
The Committee meeting held thorough discussion on the current performance of textile sector and was told that the world has now moved from raw cotton to synthetic cotton but Pakistan is still producing raw cotton in bulk which does not have high quality.
Pakistan positioned at 5th place in cotton production in the world but it has failed to benefit from it production as much as much smaller countries are benefitting.
The Committee directed the ministry to conduct a tracers study of Bangladeshi and Vietnamese textile production and export policy and submit to the committee.
They also asked the ministry to share the draft of new textile policy with the Committee once it is made so that meaningful inputs can be given.
The Committee held another detailed discussion on the performance of IPO. Members of the Board stressed upon the need to protect the Pakistani products like salt and rice when they are exported abroad as reports have been heard about Pakistani rice and salt being sold as other countries’ products.
The need to ease the process of registration of patent, trademark, and copyright was also discussed while at the same time having effective mechanism to deal with people involved in using or copying fake names.
