Mr Donglin Li, Country Director of the ILO distributed certificates among successful trainees of a skills training programme for women in the garment industry in an event organized by the Ministry of Textile Industries in collaboration with the ILO in Faisalabad on January 18, 2010.

The Ministry of Textile Industry (MINTEX) in collaboration with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Ministry of Labour and Manpower initiated this program to impart skills to women for enhancing women’s employability in the textile sector. The programme is part of the ILO’s project on “Women’s Employment Concerns and Working Conditions” which has been funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).

The training programme benefiting more than 450 women beneficiaries has been organized in three major cities including Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad. More than 90 per cent of the trained women are now employed in the garment industry.

Speaking as a Chief Guest on the occasion, Mr Li congratulated the Ministry of Textile Industry for its demonstrated commitment and incredible efforts that made the programme a great success. He also expressed his appreciation to the garment industry for their immense support in providing space and equipment for the training and recruiting the trained women in their production units. Mr Li added that promoting gender equality is a cross-cutting initiative of the ILO across its projects and programmes.

Mr Li, informed the participants that CIDA, while recognizing the good results achieved through WEC-PK project, has approved a new five-year project amounting 8 million Canadian dollars. The ILO will continue to work with the Government to pursue its Decent Work Agenda and facilitate more employment opportunities for women and men in Pakistan.

The representative of the Ministry of Textile Industry while speaking on the occasion thanked the ILO for its support and highlighted the need for continuing the training programme in the sector to provide more employment opportunities to women and also to fill the skills gap that the industry is facing.

On the same day, President Asif Ali Zardari inaugurated the Faisalabad Garment City Project that is aimed at increasing the proportion of value added products in textile exports and attract foreign investment. This project will generate employment opportunities for women, leading to additional needs for skill development for women in the sector. The ILO will provide technical support to link its training programme with this mega project.

For further information please contact:

Ms Shama Maqbool
ILO-Islamabad
Tel: +92 51 2276456-8
Email