FAISALABAD, Nov 09 (INP): Textile is the backbone of national economy and we must switch over from traditional textile to technical textile to survive in the fast changing international markets. Talking to the media persons immediately after participating in First International conference on Technical Textile in National Textile University (NTU) here Thursday, President of Faisalabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (FCCI) Shabbir Hussain Chawla said that textile sector needs immediate technical advancement to cope with the changing trends in international textile market. “It will not only increase the profitability of our surplus produce but also help Pakistan to immediately double its foreign exchange earnings”, he said and added that currently Pakistan is importing various items worth 3 Billion dollars consumed by the textile industry. He said that we must manufacture its substitutes indigenously in order to save at least 3 Billion dollars. The FCCI President also had a separate meeting with secretary Textile Mr. Hasan Iqbal and discussed with him various proposals to give a quantum jump to the textile exports. He said that industry was getting electricity and gas at high rates that have increased the cost of production, making our exports uncompetitive in the international markets. He demanded a separate and subsidized tariff of electricity and gas especially for the export oriented sectors. Similarly, there should be a clear time frame for the audit of refund claims as most of the exporters are facing liquidity crunch. He said that the refunds should also be paid through Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS). He also demanded that Refund Payment Orders issued by Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) should be made negotiable banking instrument to improve the liquidity of exporters. He also briefed him about the issues relating to Export Rebate, consultation with stakeholders before signing any Free Trade Agreement (FTA) or Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) with any country, establishment of Textile Research Institute, special arrangements to improve the skills of Human Resource for Technical Textile and up gradation of weaving sector. INP/AK