DUSHANBE, December 8, 2009, Asia-Plus — A one-day interactive seminar entitled “New Product Designing” is being held in Dushanbe today, Saidmumin Kamolov, national program manager, International Trade Center (ITC), said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
The seminar is part of the Trade Promotion Project, which is designed to strengthen the sustainable expansion and diversification of small and medium enterprises (SME) exports from Tajikistan. The project is implemented by the International Trade Center under financial support of the Government of Switzerland, according to Kamolov.
The seminar participants include textile and clothing producers, exporters, fashion designers, representatives of relevant governmental organizations, associations and ancillary services, involved in textile and clothing sector of Tajikistan, as well as students studying designing and clothing engineering technologies.
The main objective of the seminar is in seeking solution to problems facing designing of new collections, exchanging experience and studying international examples of that how principles of seeking useful information about fashion might be used for improvement of production and profit earning.
The seminar participants are also studying methodological steps how to become participant/partner at international market, which is part of this project, Kamolov said.
The seminar is being conducted by international consultant of ITC for fashion and marketing issues, Mr. Jean-Michel Glasman, who is president of the professional syndicate of the fashion designers: Union des Designers Mode & Fashion.
The Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) started working with ITC for trade promotion in Central Asia from 2002 until 2008, and recent the collaboration was purely focused on the agroindustry area (Fruit & Vegetable). Based on the outstanding achievements of the phase II acknowledged as “very successful intervention in a difficult environment”, SECO decided to enlarge this approach to a new sector. The choice of the textile sector and the project content builds on analyses, evaluations of the Phase II and needs assessment carried out by the stakeholders.
The project interventions become more specific and tailored to the specific needs of groups of enterprises: trainings will be offered to all sectoral enterprises and institutions, which will be given an opportunity to select subjects in accordance with their business priorities; participation of enterprises in trade fairs, marketing missions, and buyers and sellers events will be organized on a cost-sharing basis; and the transfer of information and know-how between the groups of enterprises that directly benefited from a specific trade fair or marketing mission will be ensured through after-the-event debriefings hosted and moderated by the partnering service providers.
The overall objective of this project is to contribute to the sustainable expansion and diversification of SMEs’ exports in Tajikistan through increasing the competitiveness of the textile and clothing (“T&C”) industry towards existing markets as well as towards new markets and improving the quality management infrastructure.
