SIDB, stakeholders join hands to launch e-platform for handicrafts

PESHAWAR: Small Industries Development Board (SIDB) Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has joined hands with various stakeholders to promote ICT-based education, digital skills and to launch an e-commerce platform for handmade handicrafts produced by local small-scale manufacturers.

Formal memorandum of understandings (MoUs) has been signed with stakeholders including Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Information Technology Board (KPITB) during a ceremony held at Chief Minister’s Secretariat. The initiative aims to assist the local industry in reaching a broader audience at national and international level.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has revived the Pakistan Arts and Crafts Gallery, a provincial government owned centre for the sale, marketing exhibition and promotion of handicrafts.

This Gallery was previously established under Small Industries Development Board at the federal capital, but later on in 2015, it was taken over from the board while in 2022, it once again come in the ownership control of the board. Now the SIDB administration has declared the entire plaza as a cultural plaza.

As per the directives of Caretaker Minister for Industries, Commerce and Newly Merged Districts Affairs, Dr. Aamer Abdullah, the same building which is located in the heart of Islamabad in a populist place of Jinnah Super Market, has been fully renovated and revived in a short time.

Now it has become a full-pledged handicraft bazaar wherein, the province and nationwide products are showcased for sale, marketing and promotion. Similarly, for e-commerce, an e-portal has also been established for connecting the Pakistan Arts and Crafts Gallery to the online system for marketing, display and sale of homemade handicraft of the province.

In collaboration with KPITB, it has now been made possible that access to products and handicrafts of the province will be possible online through the facility of e-portal, which will help in the sale, demand and marketing of province based indigenous arts and crafts products.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Caretaker Minister for Industries Commerce, Technical Education and Newly Merged Districts Affairs, Dr. Amer Abdullah has officially inaugurated the online portal of Pakistan Arts and Crafts Gallery, while on this occasion, Managing Director SIDB Ghazanfar Ali, other officials of the board, IT board representatives, journalists and other relevant visitors were also present.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony, the caretaker minister termed the project of Arts and Crafts Gallery and its services available online as a major success and appreciated the efforts of the entire team of SIDB for this initiative.

He said that those who earn livelihood through their hands and skills are the friends of Allah and this centre will be an important mean for the development of the business of such people. He appreciated the revival of the gallery building for its original purpose and putting it to useful use. He said that the development of the gallery website and portal equipped with online marketing and sale facility is an important project which will prove to be very helpful in the promotion of cultural goods of our province.

Speaking on the occasion, Managing Director (MD) SIDB), Ghazanfar Ali said that in current modern era, people are attracted towards art, crafts and hand-made goods from luxury and mechanized facilities and this gallery will become a resource to highlight our cultural heritage across the world.

He said that if this centre is a mirror of economic development on the one hand, then on the other hand, the products displayed will become a source for the economic well-being of the skilled women and men.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024