Skilled labour shortage has become a hindrance to the textile, clothing and footwear industry’s plans for expansion and growth.

This was the hot topic of discussion during the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Council annual general meeting held at the Fiji Club, in Suva, yesterday.

The council’s re-elected president, Kaushik Kumar, revealed this following the AG.

“We are trying to expand but on the other side, we do not have enough skilled labour to expand,” he said.

He said the council is addressing the issues by working with National Training and Productivity Centre and the Technical College.

They hope to introduce training courses and start training more people to be able to work in the garment industry in Fiji.

“There is shortage in every field – we need more sewing machinists, we need more supervisors, quality controllers, production managers, cutters etc,” he said.

“Skilled shortage is a hindrance for us at the moment for our expansion plans.”

The Attorney-General and Minister for Finance, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, assured the council Government will ensure training is provided for the industry.

He agreed that going into new markets would require more people and more skilled people.

“We are here to provide you with the capacity in the training area,” he said.

Importance of industry

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum, meanwhile, highlighted the importance of the textile, clothing and footwear industry which employs over 7000 people.

“TCF industry brings us the much needed foreign exchange. Our foreign reserves are the highest it has ever been in Fiji,” he said.

“Government is very much focused on introducing consolidated approach for manufacturing in Fiji.”

“We believe that manufacturing in Fiji in particular what we call team manufacturing, is the way forward for Fiji.”

Who are the executive Committee Members:

• President (re-elected): Kaushik Kumar (United Apparel (Fiji) Limited)
• Vice President East (re-elected): Veeramalai Wanarajan – Intimate Apparel Limited
• Vice President West (re-elected): Nilesh Jamnadas – Danam (Fiji) Limited
• Secretary/Treasurer (re-elected): Jone Cavubati – Fiji Export Council
• Executive Members: Mike Towler, Mark Halabe, John Barton, Raman Dahia, Arvind Kumar, Kalpesh Solanki

Feedback: rachael.nath@fijisun.com.fj