Work on the Faisalabad Garment City (FGC) will start within the next couple of months, while the government will focus on value addition in the textile sector to earn precious foreign exchange.
Federal Minister for Textile Industry Chaudhry Mushtaq Cheema said during a meeting of ninth Board of Directors (BOD) of the Faisalabad Garment City Company (FGCC) here late on Wednesday.
He said garment cities were being established in all major textile-producing cities of the country to encourage small and medium manufacturers to prepare quality garments in consonance with emerging international trends.
"These cities will save time and money on construction of building and necessary infrastructure by private manufacturers," he said, adding that the government would construct the buildings and rent them out to garment manufacturers, enabling them to fulfil all mandatory social, environmental and other related compliance.
The minister urged the need to ensure in time completion of the proposed buildings with maximum facilities to suit the needs of different garment manufacturers. He asked the BOD to start and complete issuance of tenders, and assured that necessary funds for the Rs 600 million project will be released in due course of time.
Lauding Cambodia emergence as a leading, modern garment manufacturing country, he asked the company directors to visit the said country, study the local industry and propose necessary improvements in the national project to develop it according to international trends.
He asked the BOD to immediately establish the company office to ensure proper and speedy execution on this project. Chief Executive FGCC, Sh Mukhtar Ahmed said that FGC is being established in Value Addition City (VAC) on Khurarianwala-Chak Jhumra Road over 39 acres land. It will consist of 3 blocks with total covered area of 397,223 square feet.
"A 3-storey administration block of 38,620 square feet will house the main offices, a state-of-art laboratory, training centre, dispensary and a mosque," he said, adding that two 6-storey blocks will have covered area of 224,213 and 129,890 square feet respectively.
"These blocks will be rented out to small and medium exporters dealing in garments," he said, adding that four categories of 10000, 15000, 30000 square feet and above have been proposed to cater to the needs of the small and medium entrepreneurs.
The exporters need to invest only in the machinery to start operation, while some space will also be offered to foreigners for establishing state-of-the-art garment units. Responding to a question, he said the FGC would create thousands of job opportunities in addition to hopefully adding foreign exchange earnings of about 180 million dollar towards the national kitty.
The BOD members witnessed a multimedia presentation on the project, approved the minutes of the last meeting and also approved the pre-qualification of contractors falling in category C-I.
Secretary of the ministry of textile industry Syed Masood Alam Rizvi, former PTEA chief Ahmed Kamal, Shahid Nazir, Chaudhry Muhammad Sidique chairman Faisalabad Dry Port Trust, Tahir Ishaq Bhararah, Javed Iqbal former president FCCI, Qamar Aftab, Muhammad Mushtaq of Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturers Association and Muhammad Iqbal secretary FGCC were present at the meeting.