Textile center exports training skills

Textile center exports training skills

Theresia Sufa, The Jakarta Post/Bogor

The International Garment Training Center (IGTC) in Bogor, West
Java, has agreed to help develop a similar training facility in
Honduras and Vietnam.

The center's training programs, which focus on marketing and
merchandising, quality assurance and production supervision,
would be applied in the two latter countries.

"Training programs in the garment sector are very important to
deal with (rising) competition ahead," said Till Freyer of the
German Garment Training Center foundation, a founder of the IGTC,
over the weekend.

"A training center like this so far exists only in Indonesia,"
he added, saying that the aim of the center was to provide
training for young people so they could acquire the skills needed
by the industry.

The IGTC is currently running a training session for trainers
from Honduras and Vietnam. The two-week program started on Aug.
9.

The textile and garment industry is set to face tougher
competition in the near future, especially as the global textile
quota system will be terminated early next year, as required by
the World Trade Organization. The quota system has allowed less
efficient producers to avoid direct competition with more
efficient firms in exporting their products, particularly to the
U.S., Canada and Europe, as long as they have an export quota.

Textiles and garments were once one of Indonesia's main non-
oil and gas export products. However, fears now exist that many
local firms would face difficulties in competing with more
efficient products, particularly from China, as companies here
struggle with rising labor costs and have yet to replace old
plant and machinery.