Central Chairman Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PRGMEA) Ijaz A Khokhar on Sunday said that necessary arrangements are being finalised for setting up state of the art Pakistan Readymade Technical Training Institute costing over Rs 125 million in Sialkot.
Talking to reporters he said the proposed institute will be established on suitable place and development work on the project will soon be undertaken and the institute will be affiliated with Japan. The basic concept of setting the training institute was to produce trained workforce in the field of stitching, pattern designing, quality control, inspection and sewing machine mechanics male and females separately he said. Pakistan Readymade Technical Training Institute after regular functioning in the area will help the exporters engaged with readymade garments industry to induct trained workforce to improve the overall productivity and quality of the product he said.
The PRGMEA Chairman underscored the need of formulation of sector wise policies with the consultation of all the stakeholders for ensuring boom in export of the country. The formulation of sector wise policies would not only help increasing exports but also supportive in addressing the problems confronted by the business community. Despite of certain hurdles the business community engaged with readymade garments was making strenuous efforts for enhancing the export for the larger national interests he said.
Ijaz A. Khokhar has said that a strategy was being prepared for tracking the industry on modern production lines enabling it cope with fast changing trends of fashion world market.
Special attention under the programme would be focused on improvement of designing and effective marketing for doubling the export and in this regard PRGMEA would sign Memorandum of Understand (MoU) with foreign stakeholders, garments designers marketing experts and for establishing joint ventures for the expansion of industry he added.
PRGMEA Chairman further stated that efforts were also being made for sending delegations to Eastern Europe and Central Asian countries for conducting study of the markets as well as assessing the demands of Pakistani products and possibilities of holding single country exhibitions. Ijaz further stated that PRGMEA will take concrete steps for the promotion of entrepreneurship and female and male students of fashion designing institutes would be trained under this programme. There are wide and bright chances of increase in textile products and federal government should prepare marketing plan with the active consultation of trade bodies including PRGMEA for capturing traditional and non traditional markets he suggested.
Ijaz said that in order to further improve the quality of products steps were being taken for ensuring the availability of modern material for producing standard products for the international buyers adding that at present the manufacturers were facing difficulties due to non availability of modern material. Our Research and Development (R&D) is very weak due to the high cost of utility and allied factors and under the circumstances government should announce special R&D support fund for innovation of new product and up gradation of workplaces and if government announce special package of concessions export could be enhanced to US$ 7 billion he added.