The inauguration ceremony for the Italy-Pakistan Textile Technology Center (IPTTC) was held on 16 November in Faisalabad, Pakistan at the National Textile University (NTU). The training centre, which is the first of its kind for Italian textile machinery technology in Pakistan, was inaugurated by the Italian Ambassador to Pakistan, Andreas Ferrarese, and Rizwan Shafi, CEO of Crescent Bahuman Limited.

Intervening at the ceremony in a video conference call from Italy was Alessandro Zucchi, the President of ACIMIT, the Association of Italian Textile Machinery Manufacturers, as a partner in the project together with the PISIE (International Polytechnic for Industrial and Economic Development). Zucchi remarked: “With the creation of the Italy-Pakistan Textile Technology Center, ACIMIT wishes to strengthen previously existing fruitful relations with the Pakistani textile industry.”

Financed by the Italian Government, the project intends to support the development of the local textiles industry, by equipping the technology centre with Italian machinery that will allow the local denim industry to improve the quality of its products, through ongoing research and innovation. The machines installed were supplied by Brongo, Tonello and Triveneta Grandi Impianti.

In 2019, the Pakistani market was the sixth largest destination for Italian exports (totalling EUR 80 million), and in the first half of 2020, Pakistan was the third foreign market for Italian machinery manufacturers in the sector, just behind Turkey and China. “I’m certain this initiative will reap benefits in terms of image, not just for the Italian manufacturers that have supplied the machinery, but for the entire Italian sector as well,” commented the ACIMIT president.

“Among the activities that ACIMIT and the Italian Trade Agency will develop in the near future, as a follow-up to the technology initiative, are the realization of seminars for students and professors and representatives of local manufacturers, as well as the training of local personnel by the Italian companies that supplied the centre with its machinery. With the participation of professors, students and local operators in missions to our country¸ helping them become better acquainted with Italian technology,” a spokesperson for the centre said.

ACIMIT represents an industrial sector that comprises roughly 300 manufacturers, employing around 12,000 people, which produce machinery to the approximate value of EUR 2.3 billion, 82% of which is exported. Creativity, sustainable technology, reliability and quality are the hallmarks that have made Italian textile machinery worldwide leaders, ACIMIT says.

ACIMIT Website