A meeting was held between the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) senior advisor Takafumi Ueda and the Ministry of Textile Industry Secretary Amir Marwat on Thursday at the Ministry of Textile Industry to work out parameters for the project of “Skill Development and Market Diversification” (PSDMD) for the garment industry.

At the meeting, it was mutually agreed that JICA experts would facilitate the garment sector, specially the small and medium enterprises (SMEs), in the field of international marketing practices along with compliance requirement, marketing and product diversification.

The second component of the project will focus on capacity building of the two Export Development Fund (EDF) institutes, Pakistan Readymade Garment Technical Training Institute (PRGTTI) and Pakistan Knitwear Training Institute (PKTI), managed by the Pakistan Readymade Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PRGMEA) and the Pakistan Hosiery Manufacturing Association (PHMA) respectively.

The third component relates to training institute at Faisalabad Garment City.

Takafumi Ueda said that JICA previously coordinated with the textile sector of Pakistan in 1993 by helping upgrade the National Textile University Faisalabad. The new project will open a new era of cooperation between JICA and Ministry of Textile Industry, as JICA would provide technical assistance in different fields of textiles sector.

Amir Sarwat highlighted that Pakistan has inherent advantage of being 4th largest producer of cotton in the world with a huge potential to further increase crop yield. For success of any export led Industry, local availability of basic raw material is considered as an added advantage.

The project would be beneficial in imparting higher skills in the area of garments along with market and product diversification of textile sector which are crucial for enhancing country exports for earning precious foreign exchange.

The Textile Industry secretary praised JICA for providing technical support to the textile industry. This project would facilitate in achieving goals and objectives set forth in the Textiles Policy 2014-19.

The other members present for the meeting were PRGMEA Chairman Ijaz Khokhar, PRGTTI Vice-chairman Sohail Afzal, PKTI Chairman Adil Butt, PHMA executive member Rehan Bharara, Faisalabad Garments City Company chairman along with senior officers of the Ministry and JICA.

The JICA experts would be imparting training and providing necessary machinery for the institutes.