The All-Pakistan Textile Mills Association (APTMA) has signed a Declaration of Intent (DoI) for a sustainable textile industry across the value chain with the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation (BMZ) on Thursday.

APTMA Punjab Acting Chairman Syed Ali Ahsan and Country Director GIZ Dr Ulrike Reviere signed the DoI on behalf of their respective organizations. A website www.spc.org.pk was also launched to create awareness on Sustainable Production Centre.

Earlier, the Acting Chairman APTMA Punjab welcomed the delegation, and said that the association in anticipation of the global challenges to textile exports, has established the SPC with the technical support of GIZ because the sustainable production and consumption as part of sustainable development has become a necessity to meet global sustainability challenges such as climate change, environmental pollution and prudent utilization of available resources.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Stefan Oswald, Head of Afghanistan/Pakistan in the German Ministry for Economic Cooperation who witnessed the signing ceremony said that textile industry was backbone of Pakistan economy and GIZ would continue supporting the textile industry of Pakistan.

He pointed out that the textile industry should also consider the option of using solar energy for heating water in processing industry.

Stefan also stressed upon the diversification of SPC and termed it crucial for growth of the textile industry in Pakistan.

Both the APTMA and the SPC should consider social media outlets to promote the activities of the centre and agreed with the APTMA vision that the SPC should soon become a super service provider for the textile industry in Pakistan.

The cooperation between APTMA & GIZ has flourished and become promising after grant of GSP Plus status to Pakistan from EU. German government has shown its full commitment to make Pakistan's textile industry sustainable and socially compliant to support Pakistan in retaining GSP Plus beyond 2017.