Looking for the kick: Sialkot’s sports industry looks to regain glory

Development centre starts trial operations to produce inflatable balls

LAHORE: The 2014 FIFA World Cup had the entire audience caught in football frenzy. Pakistan, on the other hand, had a different stake in it as well.

Sialkot made it to the headlines, delivering footballs to Brazil for the sport’s most prestigious event. However, since then, the city’s sports industry has remained largely quiet.



But in a recent development, things are looking up following the establishment of a facility for the production of mechanised inflatable balls in Sialkot. The unit is aimed at assisting the sports city regain its fading share in the global sports market.



The sports industries development center (SIDC) - a project of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) - has started trial operations at a common facility where local manufacturers and exporters have started bringing raw material and are using the available machinery to produce high quality products.

During a visit by the Lahore Economics Journalists Association, Smeda provincial chief Hassanein Javed informed the journalists that the centre was established by taking local stakeholders on board. “Additionally, the federal government has released funds of Rs436 million for execution of this project which will be able to cater to around 12,600 jobs in the next 10 years.”

The officials said that Sialkot was catering to around 70% of the total world demand of hand stitched inflatable balls, which translates into 40 million balls annually.

Total exports of sports goods during calendar year 2014 was $260 million with inflatable balls worth $211 million, said Smeda officials, adding that the major export destinations were Germany (14%), United Kingdom (10%), United States (8%) and Netherlands (7%).

Officials said the sports goods sector, coupled with multiple challenges, was facing a major threat in the form of ‘mechanised inflatable ball’, which is made by using medium end technology to produce a ball that has similar characteristics as a hand stitched ball.



The centre aims to provide technical knowledge, trained labour force, prototype development, mold-making services and manufacture mechanised inflatable balls for the SMEs so that the sector embraces new technology with minimal hiccups.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 1^st,  2015.

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