Chairman Pakistan Sports Goods Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PSGMEA) Professor Sheikh Safdar Sandal has said that the Sialkot based soccer ball manufacturers and exporters are in dire need of the advanced manufacturing technology, its education and promotion for meeting the global challenges.
Talking to the newsmen at Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI), here, PSGMEA chairman urged the government to announce the direly needed early increase in the Research and Development Fund for booming up sports goods industries.
He urged the federal government to make efforts for pulling out soccer ball industry from the persisting crisis, besides, considering on a proposal of giving a special package of incentives to boom and modernise it for meeting the global trade challenges under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) regime.
He further said this industry has been suffering from severe crisis caused by the changing of the soccer ball production trend from hand stitching to the mechanised soccer balls.
Professor Safdar Sandal said that the rising POL prices have already increased the cost of production of the export items, besides, making it very hard for the exporters to compete with India, China, Thailand, Taiwan and other countries in the international markets where these countries were selling comparatively cheaper products.
He urged the government to give a special subsidy to the Sialkot based exporters and industrialists on the all exported goods, enabling them to compete in the international markets, especially with our neighbouring country India.