Garment workers training: Rs 96 million SMOT project in doldrums due to paucity of funds

A Rs 96 million stitching machine operator training (SMOT) project is in jeopardy due to unavailability of Rs 50 million funds by the Federal government, causing over rupees eight million per month loss to the apparel sector, garment manufacturers said on Monday.
"Manufacturers are losing Rs 8.44 million per month in terms of garment production as we have spent a huge sum to support this programme, but the government's inaction in provision of approved funds is endangering its completion," they added.
Under the programme, about 9,000 skilled workers were to be produced within a year, but only 4,000 workforce could get training during the last one year, they added.
"The project was initiated under the umbrella of the Textile Garment Skilled Development Board (TGSDB), constituted in October 2005 and the Export Development Fund (EDF) approved RS 96 million fund for it in May 2006," they said.
The SMOT programme was announced in the 2005 trade policy, aimed at generating the skilled labour for the garment industry, they added. They said that initially, the SMOT was planned as a one-year programme to train 9,000 workers for the garment industry and 40 garment units were selected to execute this programme.
Garment manufacturers said that in line with the plan, the government has to pay Rs 5,000 per month salary to each trainee worker and Rs 2,000 per month to each industrial unit for imparting training to each worker. The selected garment units were providing training to workers in Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad and Sialkot, they pointed out.
In the first phase, they said the government released about Rs 19 million to the garment industry for the execution of the SMOT programme, but the remaining amount of Rs 50 million fund had not yet been released.
"The unavailability of the EDP's approved funds, which are still in pending failed this programme to achieve 9,000 skilled labour-mark within a year, as only 4,000 workers could be trained against the target," Central Chairman of Pakistan Readymade Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (Prgmea) Ijaz Khokhar said.
"So far, only 4,000 skilled workers could be able to operate such machines in the garment units, as the government has provided us with only Rs 19 million for carrying out this programme," he added.
Expressing fears, the Prgmea Chairman said that delay in release of funds from the government might derail the entire SMOT programme. He hoped that this programme would help the garment industry boost its manufacturing manifold per month, adding that the government should reaffirm its commitments to conclude it successfully.
He demanded of the concerned authorities to speed up the SMOT programme through uninterrupted provision of funds forthwith, and expressed fears that in case of delay in funds, which were about Rs 50 million, could push this important programme towards a dead end.
"The SMOT is a positive development in the context of skilled labour generation for the textile garment sector will help grow export significantly, but its continuation seems to be at a stake because it has fallen prey to the red-tapism," he said.
Ijaz said that for the last 12 years, the garment exporters have been contributing in the EDF, which meant the SMOT was being executed through their funds, adding that the Prgmea was worried about the fate of this programme.
The Prgmea was also preparing a training programme of middle management for garment sector, which was also in doldrums due to incompletion of the SMOT project, he said.
He pointed out that in the 2006 trade policy, the government announced the SMOT expansion to other value-added textile products manufacturing sectors, including towel and home-textile, but no unit of any of these value-added sector could initiate this programme due to lack of funds from the government.
The Prgmea Chairman was of the opinion that the skilled development programmes should be prepared in consultation with the concerned trade bodies and a clear roadmap should be presented for the development of skilled labour for the apparel sector.