Ministry to start two projects to improve quality

In the wake of regional competition, the Ministry of Textile has decided to start two projects for speeding up exports growth to show strong presence in the global market. To achieve this end more, emphasis would be laid on maintaining quality standards for which training of textile sector manpower is of utmost importance; said sources in the Ministry of Textile.

The projects, titled 'Export Development Plan' and 'Stitching Machine Operator Training', mainly aim at overcoming major quality weaknesses of textile export products, which contribute more than 60% to overall country's export earnings.

According to sources, 'Export Development Plan' is a five-year project, and will be implemented in Karachi, Faisalabad and Lahore. This project would start from this month, although July 2007 was its initial launching period. "But, due to shortage of funds, the project was delayed.

Total cost of this project is Rs 500 million, the methods to improve quality of the raw material used in export products would be achieved by establishing different laboratories in different cities across the country.

About 'Stitching Machine Operator Training' project, sources said that this one-year project would be started from January 2008, and to train the local labour, trainers would be hired from abroad.

According to sources, this project will be financed from Export Development Fund (EDF). The textile sector of the country has recorded sharp deceleration in exports from 16.2 percent in FY 06 to 4.9% in FY 07.