This was stated by the Federal Advisor on Textile Dr. Mirza Ikhtiar Baig while speaking at the inauguration of the 9th Textile Asia 2012 International Textile and Machinery Exhibition, organized by Ecommerce Gateway at the Expo Centre here Saturday.

He said that Pakistan will get a market of over 1 billion people. India is the largest buyer of Pakistani coarse count cotton yarn these days. Some of our textile items are hot cake, he added.

Baig said that Pakistani textile sector is very strong and we can double our textile exports if our entrepreneurs get the uninterrupted supply of electricity, gas and water.

He pointed out that currently the share of textile exports in the country's total exports of $25 billion was more than 56 percent or $13.8 billion in 2011. The export target for textile has now been set at $25 billion till 2014 in the trade policy, he added.

The Advisor said that the country is expecting to get a green signal from European Union for the start of export under duty free access allowed on 75 items, of which 65 are textile products.

He said Pakistan is expected to make an additional export worth 300 million Euros to EU countries for two years.

Dr Baig said that almost all the leading textile brands including Nike, Levis, Wranglers, are manufactured in Pakistan.

He said "textile has a lot of potential for growth as it has registered an impressive growth of 38 percent last year and we are aiming more. We will be importing garments to China in near future as this industrial giant is getting out this business very soon like Japan and South Korean", he added.

Earlier, CEO of Ecommerce Gateway Sohail Aziz in his welcome address said that deals worth $3.5 billion had been negotiated in the last nine years at Textile Asia.

About 276 exhibitors from 39 countries are displaying their products representing 369 international brands in three halls at the exhibition.