UNIDO Technical Assistance
Further Impacts ...
Another impact of the UNIDO activities in the five pilot clusters has been the emergence and continuing growth of interest among various institutions in Pakistan to expand the cluster development programme beyond these five clusters with UNIDO’s continued technical support. A ripple effect has thus been created and is spreading rapidly, as underlined by the following developments:
Within the framework of the national Trade Policy, the TDAP prepared several additional clusters for inclusion into the programme, including
- The sports goods cluster in Sialkot;
- The surgical instruments cluster in Sialkot;
- The automotive components cluster in Karachi;
- The knitwear cluster in Karachi;
- The knitwear cluster in Lahore;
- The electrical appliances cluster in Karachi; and
- The electrical appliances cluster in Lahore.
In August 2004 the provincial government of Punjab, operating through PSIC and in collaboration with SMEDA, adopted the UNIDO SME cluster development approach to promote the development of the following seven clusters:
- The ceramics and pottery cluster in Gujrat;
- The domestic electrical appliances cluster in Gujrat/Gujranwala;
- The leather and leather products cluster in Sialkot;
- The woodworking cluster in Chiniot;
- The cotton ginning cluster in Rahim Yar Khan;
- The handloom weaving cluster in Multan; and
- The textile machinery spare parts and components cluster in Faisalabad.
In August 2005 the provincial government of Azad Jammu and Kashmir invited UNIDO to prepare a project concept to promote the development of a number of artisanal clusters in the province, which it planned to submit to a donor conference it was planning to hold. While this proposal was unfortunately overtaken by events, subsequent discussions held by UNIDO representatives with government officials and the donor community suggest that an adapted version of such a programme would be a very appropriate vehicle for promoting sustainable livelihoods in the regions devastated by the earthquake of October 2005.
In December 2005, the recently-established Ministry of Textile Industries prepared a draft proposal to support the development of six textile clusters comprising:
- The handloom weaving cluster in Multan (also supported under the PSIC/SMEDA project mentioned above);
- The home furnishings cluster in Multan;
- The polyester cluster in Gujranwala;
- The handloom weaving cluster in Hyderabad;
- The weaving cluster in Hyderabad; and
- The textile cluster in Dadu.
In all of these cases, the Pakistani counterparts have expressed their willingness to contribute the bulk of the funding of the projects in order to overcome the constraints arising from the paucity of donor funding.
While the main activities undertaken by UNIDO so far have been devoted to the five pilot clusters, other capacity building activities were also undertaken, which allowed for a broader coverage of UNIDO’s support activities for the CND initiatives taken by various agencies in Pakistan.
The resources provided under this project were thus utilized, inter alia, to establish a sustainable national capacity for the training of cluster development agents (CDAs) through a training-of-trainers programme developed in conjunction with NIPA and the experts of the UNIDO’s cluster development programme in India in May-June 2005. This was followed a short time later by the holding of the first national CDA training programme in Pakistan, which was open to the CDAs of all CND initiatives being undertaken at that time by the various development agencies in Pakistan. As a result, it was possible to impart the UNIDO methodology to these initiatives as well, and since the preparation of a diagnostic study and the formulation of an action plan for each cluster constitutes an integral part of the CDA training programme, it was possible to provide these fundamental building blocks for all of these cluster development initiatives.
Another training programme was initiated for 20 CDAs representing six national and private sector bodies including SMEDA Sindh and AHAN (Aik Hunar Aik Nagar) under this programme in the first quarter of 2007. Training on UNIDO CND methodology to the national programme of “One Village, One Product” called AHAN was imparted to help the AHAN team in effective implementation of their programme. Review meeting of the CDAs is expected in mid-May 2008.
CND also supported the Trade Related Technical Assistance Programme of UNIDO (TRTA) on “Compliance Issues Affecting Enterprise Clusters in Punjab” to address the developmental challenges faced by the SME Clusters through the adoption of holistic approach.
This project is also supporting Engineering Developing Board (EDB), Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (PCSIR), Business Support Fund (BSF), Competitive Support Fund (CSF) and Technology Up-gradation and Skill Development Company (TUSDEC) in materializing their goals through matchmaking with the cluster actors.
