August 10, 2006	Thursday	Rajab 14, 1427

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SIALKOT, Aug 9: Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority chief-executive Shahab Anwar Khwaja said on Wednesday that the federal government had allocated a special grant of Rs272.61 million to Smeda for early establishment of a world level Sports Industries Development Centre (SIDC) here in collaboration with the business community.

Addressing a meeting of local industrialists and exporters at Sialkot Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SCCI) here, he said the main objective of the centre was to enable local sports goods sector to adopt new technology of mechanised ball, which was threatening the current hand-stitched inflatable (mainly soccer) ball.

Mr Khwaja said the early establishment of SIDC would be helpful in providing skilled workforce to the sector. The centre would help develop imported machinery locally through reverse engineering, he said.

The Smeda chief said the centre would also be helpful in making proto type balls for the industry, besides developing quality vulcanisation and pasting molds.

Addressing the meeting, SCCI president Dr Nouman Idrees Butt said the sector was now facing another serious threat in the form of `thermo-molded ball,’ using medium-end technology to produce a ball having most of the characteristics of a hand-stitched ball. He said the SIDC would introduce thermo-bonded ball technology in Sialkot.

He said construction of the centre would be completed by June 2007.