Federal Minister of Textile Industry, Rana Farooq Saeed Khan has stressed upon the need of research, development and training in textile sector which could result in enhanced exports and can also earn billions of dollars of foreign exchange through highest level of value-addition.

He expressed these views while distributing the training certificates among the 70 successful women trainees who have recently completed their training under Stitching Machine operator Training Program (SMOT) of Ministry of Textile Industry at JandM Clothing Company at EPZA on Tuesday.

Rana Farooq said that we want to avoid the shortage of skilled workers for readymade garments sector and the objective of this exercise is to train large number of skilled stitching machine operators to provide support to textile garments sector.

Minister said that finance ministry to State Bank of Pakistan would soon release 60% remaining RandD Fund. He said that textile policy has been announced for the first time in 62 years and we assure the industry that this would be followed and implemented in letter and spirit.

He said that government is seriously committed in supporting the textile industry, as it’s not only the largest foreign exchange earner for Pakistan but also the largest employment producing industry.

He said that our international friends should open up their markets for our textile products and remove all kind of restriction imposed on textile imports from Pakistan. He said that Pakistan can solve its all problems through enhanced trade and exports.

He said we considering establishing the training centers in rural areas and setting up textile units with the private sector cooperation so that rural population could also be brought into the economic cycle.

Central Chairman PRGMEA Mohsin Ayub Mirza said that SMOT Program has been very supportive for the entire apparel industry, which provides 2 months quality training in stitching to existing redundant women labor force. He said that SMOT Scheme is aimed at increasing the participation of women work force in the economic activities, which could result in their socio economic uplift, he added. Chairman PRGMEA informed that, women, who come for this training at JandM Clothing Company at EPZA are provided with 100% job guarantee on successful completion of their training course and are also provided with subsidized food, transport, monthly stipend and insurance of up to 2 lakh.

Commissioner Textile, Idrees Ahmed informed that over 5,000 trainees, including 3,000 women have so far been trained by Textile Skill Development Board in textile garments stitching sector.

Source: onlinenews.com