KARACHI – Pakistan possesses a potential of at least $50 billion in value-added textile if workers are fully equipped and trained as per international standards, said Ministry of Textiles Commissioner Muhammad Idrees.
He expressed these views while addressing closing ceremony of the ninth round of United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and PRGTTI’s Apparel Manufacturing and Management Training program held recently at the Pakistan Readymade Garments Technical Training Institute (PRGTTI).
Idrees stated that the present volume of exports, which is not over $14 billion, was not satisfactory and stakeholders could easily double this volume by improving worker skills and through compliance of standards of the major buyers.
The ninth round of master trainers of GEN-PROM project’s master of the ceremony was GENPROM-UNDP Monitoring and Evaluation Officer Moin Zaidi while National Project Manager Syed M Nawab, briefed the participants on the project’s role in the apparel manufacturing sector.
The skills development programme comprises of a one-month training covering areas including cutting, sewing, production management, industrial engineering, sewing operators training and quality control. Consultants from world-renowned consultancy firm, Technopak, have been hired for this training. Therefore, skills development training is at par with international standards. During the ninth round of training, 31 master trainers or middle management professionals from four companies have participated.
These companies include Artistic Milliners, Naz Textiles, Rajby Industries, Selimpex International and Soorty Enterprises. GEN-PROM training project has so far been successfully implemented in 30 factories in Sindh and has trained 279 master trainers/middle management professionals and 3693 workers. The Project has delivered a complete training system, course curriculum, manuals and consulting guidelines to these factories.
Training manuals are also translated in Urdu language to transfer appropriate knowledge and skills to workers of the industry. GENPROM-UNDP National Project Director Maham Nasira, Naz Textiles Director Mansoor Teli, Soorty Industries GM Zia Abbas and Captain Asghar also participated in the ceremony.
