Cutlery Institute of Pakistan (CIP) after its revival at a cost of Rs 39.84 million is successfully functioning and providing technical support to the business community engaged with cutlery industry functioning in and close to Wazirabad.
Official sources told Business Recorder in Wazirabad on Sunday the concept of establishment of CIP was to provide skilled workforce and common facilities services to cutlery sector of Wazirabad but it become non-operational in 2005. On the pressing demands of cutlery sector in 2008 Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (Smeda) and Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) joined hands for the revival of Cutlery Institute of Pakistan (CIP).
The main objectives of revival were to provide semi skilled technical and clerical workforce to the cutlery sector, common facilities, designing and prototyping services and business development and technical advisory services.
The CIP was set up by the TDAP then Export Promotion Bureau of Pakistan (EPB) in collaboration with Pakistan Cutlery and Stainless Utensils Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PSCUMEA) at a cost of Rs 35.90 million and inaugurated in August 2001.
According to available information there are about 200 units which were manufacturing cutlery items of which 50 percent are exporters. Wazirabad city has special repute in manufacturing cutlery items and was catering the domestic and international cutlery products. Globally the total trade in table cutlery is around US 5 billion dollar while an average global annual growth rate is 4 percent and Pakistan at present caters to less than 0.50 percent of the global cutlery trade.
Over 10 percent export of cutlery was increased to US 22.29 million dollar during 2010 while it was during 2009 US 20.39 million dollar. The city is known for its quality cutlery products at home and abroad and cutlery items including knives, swords, daggers, axes etc are mostly exported wheresas tableware cutlery is mainly domestic orient and there was a great need of tracking the cutlery industry on modern lines for increasing the export volume. The city is producing tableware and non-tableware with almost equal split and about 99 percent of the total exports of cutlery were those of non-tableware. About 50,000 workforce was dependent on the sector of which 20,000 were presently employed and rising population trend will further complicated the problem of unemployment.