Through the commitment of the PCSIR and the Ministry of Science & Technology, complemented by the technical assistance and trainings provided under the EU-funded TRTA II programme, this PT scheme will now be self-sustainable after 3 years. This was made possible by MoST when it approved a 3-year PC1 project worth USD 550,000 to establish the National PT Scheme at NPSL.

Today, Pakistan has two accredited PT schemes, one in the public sector and one in the private sector, which will create a healthy competitive environment with prospects of growth, development and employment generation.

In view of benchmarking study the major impediments of the sector were identified as low levels of productivity, inadequate technology upgradation, poor performance management systems and shortage of skilled staff and labour. The sector, indeed, is facing acute labour shortage in grinding and polishing sections. Major reason has been health hazard environment leading to fatal diseases like lung cancer. The new generation is unlikely to adopt the work of their parents (grinding and polishing) and also workers are not in favor to engage their siblings into the unhealthy working environment with stagnant opportunities of growth. The polishing stage is the longest, requires the most number of workers, inefficient, environmentally harmful especially to workers’ health and causes the maximum number of injuries at the work place (health and safety).

In view of the above, TRTA II programme selected four cutlery manufacturing units on cost sharing basis to implement the technology upgradation intervention in their cutlery polishing sections.  The beneficiary units have built new production halls or refurbished the existing ones to accommodate installation of polishing machines They have complied with the recommendations made by TRTA experts in terms of redesigning layouts to rearrange their equipment and machinery in order to maximize the efficiency and reduction of wastages due to non-value added activities like, travelling, work in process, workers’ sitting positions, etc. These activities took a substantial effort and cost on part of the companies.

Major benefits envisaged as a result of this technology upgradation are:

• Improve working environment in the polishing sections and attract new labour force into the cutlery & knives sector.
• Almost 6 times increase in production capacities of the cutlery units along with uniform product quality enabling them to carry out greater number of production orders thereby leading to more employment generation.
• Indigenize the cutlery polishing technology for the cutlery & knives sector.

A four member team of the Chinese supplier during the month of February, 2016, installed, commissioned and trained the personnel of model units on the new cutlery polishing machines. Pakistan Cutlery Association has been apprised on the new technology through the meetings with the Chinese engineers and through the demonstration sessions held at cutlery beneficiary units.

This is encouraging that Pakistan Cutlery Association (PCSUMEA) has developed a PC-1 through TUSDEC following the model of TRTA II programme to upgrade the technology in other cutlery manufacturing units of the sector making this intervention sustainable and impactful.

The provincial assembly of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK) province has passed the legislative bill for the establishment of KPK food authority and the Health Department KPK has now started the process of establishment of the KPK food authority. The new food authority in KPK will need qualified human resource to effectively implement the food safety controls. To strengthen the Food Safety Controls through the provision of qualified human resource, TRTA II, after assessing the capability of the universities in KPK, selected the University of Agriculture Peshawar for the launch of PGDC in Food Safety and Controls.

TRTA II national and international experts visited UAP to verify their capacity and assess the technical skills (faculty), facilities/infrastructure to launch the PGDC in Food Safety & Controls. Based on this assessment, UAP was selected to receive support from the Programme in implementing new Food Safety curricula. TRTA II international expert also conducted the training of the faculty members of the Department of Food Science and Technology on the development of teaching and presentation skills in the delivery of the PGDC in Food safety and Controls. The faculty members were also given training on inspection of food and food establishments, including the use of food inspection kits. The PGDC in Food Safety and Controls at UAP has now been accredited by the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland (REHIS).Students from different disciplines including Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Science have been enrolled in the PGDC. The Ambassador of European Union to Pakistan H. E. Jean-Francois Cautain presented the REHIS Accreditation certificate to University of Agriculture, Peshawar.

Mr. Esam Alqararah emphasized on the importance of certifications and said that the compliance portfolio of an organization necessarily deals in mitigating the risks it could face in the local and global markets. For example if the compliance enforcement is stringent in a country of export and the supplier is lacking in a certain Non-Tariff Barrier (NTB) it would risk the business loss in that particular country. In a number of examples it has been witnessed that the Pakistani manufacturers have not been able to export their products directly and have to rely on middle men due to lack of required certifications. As a result they lose the negotiation power and have to content with the withered profit margins.

He further elaborated that keeping in view the importance of compliance and to deal with the issues of availability of consultancy services for export sectors of Pakistan a study on “Assessment and Analysis of Certification Requirements in selected export sectors of Pakistan” was conducted by TRTA II Programme. Subsequently, UNIDO led TRTA-II Programme in collaboration with PCSIR and Bureau Veritas Certifications (BVC), has carried out the intervention “Certified Trainings of Consultants and Responsible Personnel of Enterprises of Selected Sectors” to overcome the existing gap of supply and demand related to the selected certifications. Over 170 personnel have participated in the 10 demand driven internationally approved certified training courses, around 130 participants have qualified.

Chairman PCSIR, Mr. Shahzad Alam, said that achieving these certifications has two major constraints. First, cost of certification puts considerable financial demands on small and medium exporters who, in addition to paying the cost of acquiring the certification, are required to upgrade the supply chains, infrastructure, and equipment to meet the requirements specified in the standard. Second, access to technical expertise on how to go about achieving some certification poses a significant problem due to a lack of adequately qualified consultants for those certifications.

Regarding sustainability of this intervention he told the audience that building on this intervention of TRTA II Programme, PCSIR through MoST has developed and submitted a PSDP project worth PKR 745 Million, namely, “Certification Incentive Programme for SMEs”. This PC-1 has been approved by planning commission, GoP.  The objectives of this programme are to guide and support 2025 SMEs on a number of certifications mainly identified in the TRTA II Programme. This initiative by PCSIR under MoST will enhance awareness among the SMEs on global compliance and will be improving international competitiveness of Pakistani entrepreneurs.  The consultants trained under TRTA II programme will be playing a vital role in preparing the organizations for certifications required to export their products. 

The chief guest Mr. Esam Alqararah and other guests distributed the certificates of achievement among the successful candidates and desired these candidates to play their vital role in bringing about the envisaged change leading to enhanced export regime for the Pakistani products and services in the global market.

In his welcome address Mr. Khalid Mughal said ” The benchmarking study conducted under EU funded TRTA II Programme implemented by UNIDO and the technology up gradation intervention would prove to be key endeavors in bringing about enhanced export regime for the Cutlery and Knives Sector of Wazirabad. We are trying to replicate and upscale this intervention in collaboration with Government and donor agencies. I congratulate the team of TRTA II Programme on achieving this key milestone in the cutlery sector of Wazirabad. Introducing the cutlery sector he said, “Due to the high quality artisan abilities in the field of cutlery and knives over the centuries, Wazirabad has become synonymous to the City of Cutlery. The sector consists of more than 500 Cutlery manufacturing SMEs in and around the city of Wazirabad covering an area of 10 square miles. A wide range of products including, swords, daggers, knives kitchen ware and kitchen utensils are being manufactured in Wazirabad. Total export of this industry is around 90 US$ Million while it is providing employment to more than 25000 personnel.

H.E. Mr. Jean Francois assured future support to the Pakistan’s industrial sectors to exploit the full potential of GSP Plus scheme awarded by the EU. In the face of severe competition Pakistani manufacturers need to adopt latest technology to comply with the social standards demanded by the customers of high end markets like EU and USA.

Mr. Esam Alqararah applauded the contributions made under TRTA II Programme and apprised the audience that in view of the benchmarking study the major impediments of the sector were identified as low levels of productivity, inadequate technology up gradation, poor performance management systems and shortage of skilled staff and labor. The sector, indeed, is facing acute labor shortage in grinding and polishing sections. Major reason has been health hazard environment leading to fatal diseases like lung cancer. The new generation is unlikely to adopt the work of their parents (grinding and polishing) and also parents are not in favor to engage their siblings into the unhealthy working environment with stagnant opportunities of growth. The polishing stage is the longest, requires the most number of workers, inefficient, environmentally harmful especially to workers’ health and causes the maximum number of injuries at the work place (health and safety).

Subsequently, TRTA II programme selected two cutlery manufacturing units on cost sharing basis to implement the technology up gradation intervention in their cutlery polishing sections. The beneficiary units have built new production halls or refurbished the existing ones to accommodate installation of polishing machines. They have complied with the recommendations made by TRTA experts in terms of redesigning layouts to rearrange their equipment and machinery in order to maximize the efficiency and reduction of wastages due to non-value added activities like, travelling, work in process, workers’ sitting positions, etc. These activities took a substantial effort and cost on part of the companies.

Major benefits envisaged as a result of this technology up gradation are:

• Improve working environment in the polishing sections and attract new labor force into the cutlery & knives sector.
• Almost 6 times increase in production capacities of the cutlery units along with uniform product quality enabling them to carry out greater number of production orders thereby leading to more employment generation.
• Indigenize the cutlery polishing technology for the cutlery & knives sector.

Four members team of the Chinese supplier during the month of February, 2016, has installed, commissioned and trained the personnel of model units on the new cutlery polishing machines. Pakistan Cutlery Association has been apprised on the new technology through the meetings with the Chinese engineers and through the demonstration sessions held at cutlery beneficiary units.

Mr. Abdul Ghaffar Khatak congratulate the TRTA II Programme team in bringing about the much needed intervention in the cutlery sector at pilot level and highlighted the capacity building exercise carried out for the local institutions under this programme. He said, “This is encouraging that Pakistan Cutlery Association (PCSUMEA) has developed a PC-1 through TUSDEC following the model of TRTA II programme to upgrade the technology in other cutlery manufacturing units of the sector making this intervention sustainable and impactful.”

A MoU was also signed among the TRTA II Programme, PCSUMEA and the Cutlery beneficiary units to strengthen the collaboration and to replicate and upscale the interventions made under TRTA II Programme.