KARACHI, July 3: Textile Industry Minister Mushtaq Ali Cheema has said the government is aware of the problems confronting the value-added textile sector and efforts are being made to resolve them. Speaking at the inaugural ceremony of “Stitching Machine Operators Training (SMOT) Scheme”, launched by Textile Garments Skill Development Board here on Monday, the minister said that the objective of this scheme was to produce large number of skilled and highly productive labour force for the garment industry to face the challenges of free market economy.

He assured the garments manufacturers that his ministry would defend and protect their interests in ensuring a level-playing field so that it could increase its market share in the global textiles and garments trade.

He further said that the scheme would also be helpful for producing quality products for competitive international market.

By imparting skill training and to both male and female workforce, the minister was hopeful that it would not only improve the quality of our products but would also increase productivity and result in lower cost and lesser wastage.

Mr Cheema said that despite the fact that the government would be sharing the cost of imparting training to skill labour but it would also be bearing a cost of Rs10,000 for training one person on stitching machine.

There was a time, he said, when western nations avoided opening up their markets to protect their industry and employment but now there were no more quantitative restrictions and Pakistan was better place on having a surplus production of around 80 to 85pc in textiles and clothing.

However, some unforeseen problems cropped up but both the industry and the government have to be cooperative with each other in order to bring down the cost of production, one of the major irritants for the textile industry.

The minister informed that around 50,000 footballs were purchased from Pakistan for ongoing football world cup and added that dresses for the teams were also made in Sialkot though the city had not major role in textiles and garments.

“Even today the world is at a loss that how the last patch is fixed in the finishing process of a football and many world experts visited Sialkot to learn this technique but they failed to grab the nag and skill being used for fixing the last patch on a football,” the minister asserted.

Textile Industry Secretary Masood Alam Rizvi giving some details about the SMOT said that the Textile Garment Skill Development Board would bear up to Rs25,000 of remuneration of trainers for 25 trainees. “This scheme has been launched in Karachi, Lahore, Faisalabad and Sialkot”.

He also informed that this week the board would meet Sindh governor for allocation of land for the project.