KARACHI, June 10: State Minister and Chairman of the Export Promotion Bureau Tariq Ikram, on Friday urged the private sector to invest in human resources for a better future. He warned the business community that if they continued to ignore skill development the very progress of the industry and growth of exports could be jeopardized.

Speaking at a certificate distribution ceremony of the SMA Rizvi Textile Institute, Korangi, the EPB chief said the industry should come forward and collaborate with such institutions that were imparting skills and training to youth.

“In the last five years, textile exports registered 89 per cent growth and the country is now poised to have record exports of $14 billion which is expected to touch $30 billion in the years to come,” he pointed out. “If a sustainable growth has to be achieved the industry should invest and cooperate in the development of human skills.”

Very soon, he cautioned, the industry would confront with the problem of finding skilled workforce, and if they invested in institutions today, which are involved in imparting specialized training, it would take three to four years to get the first batch of skilled manpower.

Mr Ikram said the EPB had set up around 23 vocational and training institutions at a cost of Rs2 billion dished out from the Export Development Fund (EDF), but unfortunately most of these institutions were not being run properly because of paucity of funds. He said that the EPB agreed to provide funds for setting up of these institutions but running cash would be made available by the respective trade body.

He said: “Today we find excellent buildings with good furniture but most of them are lacking funds even to pay to their faculty members. In some cases, it is difficult to find good faculty members to impart training to youth and if we fail to meet this problem in the years to come, the industry will be short of skilled manpower.”

The EPB recently carried out

Investment in human resources sought the audit of 23 institutions: only six could be placed in category ‘A’, 11 in ‘B’ and the remaining in category ‘C’. “Now what is the use of spending millions of rupees on bricks and motors and good-looking furniture if you could not impart training and skills to youth?” he asked.

“The situation is so deplorable that many of these institutions have stopped skills training and shifted to other subjects such as computer training, which is again wastage of funds.”

Mr Irkam said the government had now decided that no institution would be provided funds without preparing a feasibility report for a period of five years. “It will be mandatory to show cash flow as well as income and expenditure. It is not a problem if any institution does not make any earning in the initial years for which the government would provide funds, but without any working paper no funds would be given.”

The EBP chief, however, appreciated the working of the SMA Rizvi Textile Institute and said after taking a tour of the institution one can note a lot of difference in the technical upgradation and equipment compared to when it was initially started. He said this institution was one of the best, but suggested that higher education and collaboration with the University of Karachi or even with a foreign institution should be sought.

Similarly, he said there was a great need of improving the pay scale of faculty members and only then good and highly educated people would enter this profession. “Without good and excellent faculty no educational institution could produce good results.”

Towel Manufacturers Association Pattern-in-Chief SMA Rizvi, TMA Chairman Syed Usman Ali, SMA Rizvi Textile Institute board of governors’ vice-chairman Feroze Alam Lari, institute’s principal Dr Abdul Jabbar, and founder principal M.A. Rathor also spoke on the occasion.

Tariq Ikram lauded the services and cooperation extended by SMA Rizvi and Abdul Razzak Telli towards the institute and said perhaps they were the only industrialists who took keen interest in imparting vocational and training skills to manpower.