Jaipur Handicrafts Centre bags support of Textile Minister

The Interactive meet was followed by laying of foundation of Handicrafts Productivity Centre which is being implemented by the Export Promotion Council for Handicrafts with the partial funding from the Ministry of Textiles.  The facility will come up in an area of 4000 sq. mtrs with an estimated cost of around Rs. 10 crores.  

The Centre will include the facilities such as common facility centre for seasoning including chemical treatment of wood for the purpose of export production, integrated resource centre to provide information to the exporters on various aspects of exports like production techniques, marketing information, financing, documentation, internet, books and journals and testing laboratory for testing of wood and textile crafts for the handicrafts exporters from Rajasthan region.

While unveiling the foundation stone the Dr. Rao said, “This Handicrafts Productivity Centre would be a landmark project at Jaipur and would help the craftspersons, entrepreneurs and exporters in the years to come.” He further congratulated EPCH and the handicrafts community for having conceptualized such facility at Jaipur and hoped to have a magnifying affect on the production and exports of handicrafts from the state in the future.

The Minister also urged the exporting community to achieve the target of USD 5 billion for Handicrafts sector against target of USD 3.8 billion for the year 2013-14

Shri Lekhraj Maheshwari, Chairman EPCH, elaborating on the discussions said, “Today’s interaction with Ministers and senior Government Officials would pave way for better understanding of the needs of various export sectors of Rajasthan and help formulate the policies accordingly. He further added that the initiative of Handicrafts Productivity Centre would have a very positive impact on the production and exports from Rajasthan in general and Jaipur in particular”.

Shri Rakesh Kumar, Executive Director-EPCH made a presentation on the concept of the Handicrafts Productivity Centre and provided details about the project and said “The centre will be able to cater to the needs of the exporters from Rajasthan and help them in development of modern skills, availability of trendy and new designs, knowledge of latest production techniques, quality and technological upgradation, mechanism in manufacturing and innovation in product lines and product development. This Centre will meet the demands of the exporters of the Rajasthan region would help double the exports which at present is 30% of the total Exports of handicrafts products”.

The exports of Handicrafts have shown an increase of Rs. 534.57 crores, from Rs. 3185.95 to Rs. 3720.52 crores, an increase of 16.78% in rupees terms and an increase of US $ 73.88 millions, from US$ 591.36 million to US$ 665.24 million, an increase by 12.49 % in dollar terms during the first quarter of the current financial year i.e 2013-14 over the similar period in 2012-2013.

Ministry of Textiles