Sporting goods: Development centre almost complete

SIALKOT: Most of the work on the Rs435.64 million Sports Industries Development Centre (SIDC) has been completed, and it is expected to become operational by the middle of the year, officials have said. The centre was built to manufacture thermo-laminated balls used in different sports in compliance with international standards. SIDC will be equipped to manufacture 3,500 such balls every eight-hour shift. Officials say that the SIDC will assist Sialkot’s declining sports industry enhance product quality and competitiveness in international markets, while helping it overcome challenges in product development. The mechanically produced balls in use around the world had been a threat to the hand-stitched, inflatable soccer ball industry of Sialkot. Sialkot currently supplies 85 percent of total world’s demand of hand-stitched inflatable balls. The project was initiated by the Federal Ministry of Industry to address problems of the soccer ball industry.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 22^nd, 2012.