Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (SMEDA) is going to implementation of a project establishing 1000 industrial stitching units across Pakistan including Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK), Gilgit-Baltistan and erstwhile FATA.
The project is sponsored by the Ministry of Commerce and Textile (Textile Division) and would be executed by SMEDA, a subsidiary organization of the Ministry of Industries and Production. The operation and maintenance of the project will be carried out by SMEDA through its provincial offices.
The project is based on Vision 2025, which aimed to improve private sector led growth and is also in line with over all objectives of 11th five year programme (2013-18).
An amount of Rs600 million has already been committed for the project with proposed amount of Rs350.545 million for Phase-I of the project. Out of the total allocation an amount of Rs 150 million was allocated in Public Sector Development Programme (PSDP) for financial year 2016-17 and another amount of Rs 114 million in PSDP for financial year 2017-18 for the project.
The project will be implemented in a phase-wise manner and in Phase-1, 150 industrial stitching units would be established throughout the country in a transparent way through open competitive basis according to Public Procurement Regulatory Authority (PPRA) rules. The phase 2 and 3 of the project will be implemented after successful commencement of the first phase.
The objectives of the project are poverty reduction, improvement in socio-economic conditions of the target community, enhancement in self-employment through skill development and promotion of export through value addition by improving competitiveness of textile sector in garments manufacturing sub-sector.
Other objectives of the project are the empowerment of female population of the country through skill development and their participation in economic activities, up-gradation of Pakistan's textile industry by subsidizing machinery for the new entrepreneurs and existing manufacturers, technology up-gradation, improvement of quality of garments products, human resource development in textile sector.
Furthermore, the project would promote the share of value-added products in the total textile exports from the country; maximize the value of Pakistan's cotton resources and generation of additional employment for skilled/semi-skilled workforce, to promote per capita productivity and reduction of wastage because of the in house training.
The project would create about 26,015 direct and approximately 100,000 indirect jobs for youth in the field of textile garment manufacturing to promote value addition in garment sector and earn livelihood as well as foreign exchange for the country.
Talking to this scribe, Textile Engineer, Mohammad Israr, Manager SMEDA and Project Director 1000 Industrial Stitching Units said that the project has been envisaged to promote public private partnership to boost the value addition in the field of textile garments by establishing industrial stitching units by strengthening small and medium entrepreneurs.
In the project, 60% funding for the machines will be provided from PSDP by the Ministry of Commerce and Textile and remaining 40% would be borne by the owner of the stitching units.
The Project Management Unit (PMU) will be established at SMEDA Head Office, Lahore and the project staff including SMEDA officials engaged with the project would be placed throughout Pakistan at four provincial offices of the authority to monitor and supervise the implementation of the project.
SMEDA & NTU would be set up at SMEDA Head Office to scrutinize the eligibility of each applicant/owner before subsidizing the stitching centre. The machines would be provided by the supplier/company after finalization of terms and conditions for purchase/procurement.
A steering committee constituted in the SMEDA Head Office would be responsible for the overall policy formulation, implementation and assuring outcomes as set in the PC-1 of the project.
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