State Minister for Textiles Major (Retd) Abdul Mannan on Sunday proposed a inter-mln-isterlal meeting with representatives of the textile and garments sector to find out solutions to the sickness of the textile sector.

Addressing the entrepreneurs and bankers at Bangladesh Chamber of Industries (BCL) he said if the textile mills can be tagged to supply at least three categories of garment fabric requirement, about 15 crore yards of cloths can be marketed. He said, for this the country needs at least 40 sizing mills. 10 dying and

ters from abroad.

' The State Minister said the confidence of the garment manufacturers is essential for this, adding that the local fabrics should be made price competitive by taking a number of steps like providing cash incentive, lowering power rate, grooming up marginal skills and other steps. He said discussions on these regards should start soon.

President of BCI A M Subid All, in his welcome speech.

said the local fabric has become non-competitive with smuggled foreign fabrics because the local textile mills do not enjoy some facilities which the foreign entrepreneurs enjoy.

Sharif Afzal Hossain, Senior Vice-President of BCI, who also addressed the meeting demanded a textile policy for development of the sector. He said the textile sector should be given package incentives to make the local fabric competitive with the smuggled cloth. He stressed the need for Balancing, Modernisation," Replacement and Expansion (BMRE) of the existing textile units.

Managing Director of Bangladesh Shilpa Bank Abdul Karim said the sick textile units should be selectively taken for BMRE. He said, it is not possible to serve all .the units at the same time. Director of Textile directorate. Major (Retd) Akhtar said the textile units have become sick as the policy makers did not take into account of the technical advice when approving the units.