KARACHI, April 23: President Asif Ali Zardari on Monday advised the government to work out a plan to ensure uninterrupted gas supply to the industry in the Punjab for five days a week, commencing from the first week of May.

He said this during a meeting with an Aptma delegation which called on him at Bilawal House and drew his attention to issues being faced by textile mills and other industry.

On top of the agenda in the meeting were issues of load-shedding and negative impact of gas closures on the industry.

Briefing about the meeting a spokesperson to the President, Senator Farhat-ullah Babar, said that the President emphasised that textile industry was playing an important role in boosting country’s exports and there was a need to adopt out of the box solutions to address the issues being faced by the industry and to enhance value-added exports of textiles.

Appreciating the contribution of the textile sector in economic progress and prosperity of the country, Pre-sident Zardari was quoted as reassuring the delegation of government’s full support to Aptma in realisation of full potential and the export targets.

The President emphasised the need for closer cooperation between public sector research centres and manufacturers/producers in the private sector so as to create an enabling environment for enhancing productivity.

He said that research on developing new varieties of cotton with higher production potential, diverse and distinct characteristics must be geared up for meeting the future demands of cotton.

The President said negligible investment in the past few years has cost the country its technological edge in the basic textiles which it used to enjoy once over the neighbouring countries. “We need to reverse this trend so as to regain our position,” the President said.

He said that there was a wide variation in the yields of common and progressive farmers which needs to be filled in a short span to increase cotton production.

The president also said that a meeting of Governor, State Bank with the representative of Aptma and the Ministry of Textile should also be held to work out plans for crop insurance. He said that modern mapping technology can be effectively employed in crop insurance and to offset the possibility of wrong claims.

Mohsin Aziz, Aptma Chair-man, briefed the meeting on prospects of increased export of textile products and also spelled out problems being faced by the textile sector.