Germany offers €7,500,000 for textiles industry

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Republic of Germany has provided up-to € 7,500,000 as contribution for the improvement of labor, social and environmental standards in textiles industry of Pakistan for the period of three years.

Ministry of Commerce and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Germany signed an Implementation Agreement in pursuance of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) earlier signed between Economic Affairs Division (EAD) on behalf of Islamic Republic of Pakistan and Federal Republic of Germany on December 23, 2020.

According to MoU, the Government of Germany agreed to support two projects and one is on “improvement of Labor, Social and Environmental Standards in Pakistan’s Textile Industry (TextILES)”.

The signing ceremony was participated by Advisor to Prime Minister on Commerce and Investment Abdul Razaq Dawood,Special Secretary, Ministry of Commerce, Dr. Sohail Rajpoot from Pakistan side and Principle Advisor GIZ, . Romina Kochius from Germany side.

The technical cooperation on this project aims to increase value-addition and competitiveness, and foster innovation by synergizing the environmental, social, and economic dimension of sustainability in the textiles and apparel industry.

The outcome of project would be to support digitalization of Labor and Human Resource Department’s (LHRD) downstream institutions like Punjab Employees Social Security Institution (PESSI), formulation and implementation of measures to ensure sustainable production, transform 15-20 companies which made use of good environmental practices, innovative technologies or labor standards to move to higher value addition or entered new markets.

It also aimed to initiate 2 campaigns on Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) particularly for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to achieve international certification in labor and environmental standards.

The Adviser to Prime Minister on Commerce, Abdul Razzaq Dawood met with Principal Advisor GIZ , Romina Kochius and acknowledged the government of Germany and her for the valuable support in respect of technical cooperation to Pakistan’s textiles and apparel industry in order to improve labor conditions, compliance standards and resource efficiency.