Modern leather garment city under study

Modern leather garment city under study
The News – International, Pakistan

KARACHI: The government is considering establishing a modern Leather Garment City in Karachi in order to boost the country’s exports.

Chairman Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) Tariq Ikram stated this while talking to newsmen at a ceremony organised by the Pakistan Leather Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PLGMEA) to mark the completion of leather garment workforce training project with the assistance of Korean technicians.

Tariq Ikram urged the leather manufacturers to submit comprehensive proposals for the multi-million-rupee Leather Garment City project where all facilities including state-of-the-art infrastructure would be provided. He said the government was ready to share 50 per cent cost of the project.

He said by improving designs and production efficiency and strictly abiding by the delivery time, the leather industry could enhance exports, otherwise they might lose their existing orders in the international market. “Foreign buyers are very keen on timely delivery of products,” he emphasised.

He pointed out that capacity-building was a job of the Ministry of Industries, but the bureau was willing to help the exporters and the industry in capacity-building projects like leather garment workforce training programme of the PLGMEA. As per plan, he said, the EPB would share 50 per cent fee of the consultants for capacity-building.

“Textile sector made some $6 billion investment in Balancing, Modernisation and Replacement (BMR) programme during the last five to six years and now their industries are well upgraded with modern equipment. But the machinery will give return after imparting training to workers and now textile industry does not have trained people to run these machines,” the EPB chairman lamented.

He hoped the President would issue an ordinance on the Trade Development Authority in one and a half week and dispelled the apprehension the TDA would block the EPB’s past efforts in respect of export promotion.

Earlier, Chairman Pakistan Leather Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association Ahmed Zulfiqar Hayat said lack of trained workforce was a serious problem in the leather industry of Pakistan.

“Our industry lacks educated and skilled production management personnel and supervisory staff lacks academic knowledge. Therefore, they are unable to apply modern techniques used by our competitors like China. But once again we have successfully completed a training programme of workforce of leather industry with the assistance of Korean technicians,” he said.

“Our association analysed the problem and initiated training programmes to improve the skills of workforce of leather garment industry and hired Korean technicians about two and a half years ago,” he said.

He said the EPB provided major financing for the project whereas the participants shared 20 per cent cost.

Giving the break-up, he said the total cost of the project was Rs16.875 million, of which the EPB provided Rs1.5 million while Rs3.375 million was shared by the participants.

He said three technicians provided their services to factories in Karachi and Lahore while other three served factories in Sialkot who were skilled in pattern making, cutting and stitching. He said 13 exporters benefited from the skills of Korean technicians while 16 exporters of Sialkot participated in the training programme.

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