Dyeing, washing and pressing Common Facility Centre (CFC) for silk cluster at Mingora, district Swat has formally come into operation the other day. Federal Minister for Industries and Production, Ghulam Murtaza Khan Jatoi especially visited Swat to inaugurate the project. Besides, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA), Sher Ayub Khan, General Manager Out-Reach (GMOR) SMEDA, Javed Iqbal Khattak, President, Swat Chamber of Commerce & Industry (SCCI), Haji Noor Mohammad, representatives of Islampur Cottage Industries and others attended the inauguration ceremony at large.
The project is sponsored by Ministry of Industries and Production, Government of Pakistan and would be jointly operated and maintained by the concerned association and Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA).
The total estimated cost of project is Rs 57.53 million, which also include three-year operational cost of the projected funded by the government of Pakistan under Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP).
Talking to this scribe, Project Director, Textile Engineer, Mohammad Israr Khan Wazir said that the objectives of the project are to support local community in sustainable livelihood by improving and creating economic activity, improve quality of silk cloth, to support the cluster in shape of technical know-how on the subject to improve their quality enhancing local demand and bringing them at par with national standards.
Other objectives of the project are included to promote innovative methods of improved dyeing, washing and pressing for cost reduction, value addition and time saving, developed diversified products in the cluster and create market linkages at local and national level to increase the income of the producers in the cluster.
The cluster of silk yarn units is located on main highway at Rahimabad, Mingora in district Swat and currently comprises of around 75 operational units, as compared to the situation a few years back in Swat was considered as a major cluster of silk and hard more than 400 units.
The average unit size is forty (40) power-looms with one labour for each loom. The labour force is mostly locals though previously some of the labour force and most of the experts and managers were from Punjab. Swat was an under-developed area and incentives extended by the federal government in 1964-65 resulted in making it an industrial hub with major clusters of silk units and cosmetic manufacturers.
In those incentives, Swat was declared as tax free zone along with some other incentives such as electricity rebates, etc. These incentives attracted many people to shift from Punjab to take benefits of the investor-friendly environment for weaving business.
These incentives also generated economic activities in the whole region attracting investors from Punjab province to establish units and Afghans to join as stakeholders on supply side. They started bringing cones of threads from Korea and Japan, which was then supplied to Swat region through Landi Kotal via Afghanistan. Raw material from the same countries was also available in Karachi and was brought in 20-30 kg cartons wherein 30 kg carton was priced Rs 2500 including transportation cost.
Initially, fifteen to twenty units with ten to twenty looms per unit were started by the investors from Punjab and locals were engaged as labour resulting in employment for more than 20,000 persons than increased to 75,000 employment opportunities as number of units increased from 20 to 400.
The economic activity faced the first major shock when incentives for the cluster were withdrawn in 1985-86 that resulted in disposing units by SMEs from Punjab and huge losses in business.
Mohammad Israr Wazir said that seventy five (75) units of the cluster are still surviving in the market when militancy in the region increased resulting in military operation in May 2009. The project, he said would support in revitalization of the industry in the region and would also help in revival of the closed silk manufacturing units.
The major issues faced by the cluster have been identified as lack of managerial skills, finance & marking skills, raw quality silk, absence of washing, dyeing and pressing facility, non-awareness about standards and their enforcement and lack of knowledge in product diversification.
The products prepared by Swat silk cluster are not finished and thus needs value addition. The establishment of dyeing, washing, pressing and sizing facility for value addition will improve the product quality and will result in employment generation and boosting of economic activities in the region.
The facilities available in the centre are included washing, designing, dyeing, pressing, branding & marketing and costing, management and book keeping.
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