Cutlery Institute of Pakistan (CIP) after its revival at a cost of Rs 39.84 million is successfully functioning and providing technical support to the business community engaged with cutlery industry functioning in and close to Wazirabad.
Official sources told APP here on Sunday, the concept of setting up of the CIP was to provide skilled workforce and common facilities to cutlery sector of Wazirabad but it became non-operational in 2005. On the pressing demands of cutlery sector in 2008,the Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (SMEDA) and Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) joined hands for the revival of CIP.
The main objectives of revival were to provide semi skilled technical and clerical workforce to the cutlery sector, common facilities, designing and business development and technical advisory services.
The CIP was set up by Trade Development Authority (TDAP) then Export Promotion Bureau of Pakistan (EPB) in collaboration with Pakistan Cutlery and Stainless Utensils Manufacturers and Exporters Association (PSCUMEA) at a cost of Rs 35.90 million and inaugurated in August 2001.
According to available information, there are about 200 units, which were manufacturing cutlery items of which 50 percent are exporters. Wazirabad city has special repute in manufacturing cutlery items and was catering the domestic and international cutlery products.
Cutlery is one of the important export oriented sector of the country and its products like knives, swords, daggers, axes etc mostly exported where as tableware cutlery is mainly domestic oriented and there was a great need of tracking the cutlery industry on modern lines for increasing the export volume.
The total trade in table cutlery is about US 5 billion dollars globally and at present the share of Pakistan is only 0.47 percent in the world-wide cutlery trade. According to available information during 2008-09 the total export of cutlery was US 54 million dollars from Pakistan.
The city is producing tableware and non-tableware with almost equal split and about 99 percent of the total exports of cutlery were those of non-tableware. About 50,000 workforce was dependent on the sector of which 20,000 were presently employed.
The CIP was equipped with modern machinery and currently providing training facilities in the field knife assembly, welding, machining, cutlery polishing, computerised cutlery designing and drawing and drilling.
The CIP will offer training programmes in tool, die and mold making, cutlery manufacturing press work and cutlery manufacturing knife grinding in near future.
In addition, CIP will also introduce short training programmes for entrepreneurs like accounting, book keeping, branding and marketing, quality control, inventory control etc shortly.
The common facility centre services are currently being offered knives grinding (flat and hollow), cutlery shearing and blanking operations, cutlery polishing. Besides, common facility centre services in argon welding for cutlery hollow ware, die and mould making, heat treatment services and cutlery coining operations will be introduced in CIP in future.
It had provided training to 222 students out of which 45 were females in different trade fields.
During the visit, it was observed that most of the cutlery units were functioning in residential areas and very few manufacturing units were functioning on the Wazirabad-Gujranwala road because there was no mini industrial estate exist in Wazirabad.
Most of the cutlery manufacturers were of the opinion that the establishment of a mini industrial estate in the area had become vital need, which help in shifting industrial units from residential areas.
They suggested that the Punjab government should take initiatives for setting up of mini estate and display centre for exhibition of cutlery products being manufactured in the area.
In the absence of industrial estate the foreign buyers were reluctant to Wazirabad and timely action of the government would help in enhancing the export volume, they added.