ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF) Mian Zahid Hussain on Monday welcomed the Rs 180 billion package announced by the prime minister, terming it as a timely move to boost exports. The PBIF president said, “Textile and other exports industries have lost their competitive edge in the international market because of high cost of production and hence were in need of an incentive package.” Zahid said that the package should be implemented without any delay in order to boost exports and improve the competitiveness of export sector. He added that the package could potentially push exports by 2.5 to 3 billion dollars. The business forum leader said that the package, which would be effective for one and a half year, would provide support to industries like textile, clothing, carpet, surgical instruments and sports goods while the major beneficiary of the package would be the textile sector that was responsible for 58 percent of the export earnings.