LAHORE: Sialkot is fulfilling the 70 per cent of total world demand of hand stitched inflatable balls (around 40 million balls) annually.
The total exports of sports goods from the city during calendar year 2014 were $260 million with inflatable balls worth $ 211 million and the major export destinations are Germany with 14 per cent, UK 10 per cent USA 8 per cent and Netherlands with 7 per cent of the total exports.
Sports goods sector, coupled with multiple challenges, was facing the major threat in the form of “Mechanized inflatable ball”, which uses medium end technology to produce a ball having most of the characteristics of hand stitched ball.
This new ball has been tested and played in a number of international football tournaments including UEFA EURO 2004. While, an improved version of this ball was used in the FIFA World cup held in 2006.
The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (Smeda) has saved the local football industry from losing its share in the international market by establishing a Sports Industries Development Centre (SIDC) at Sialkot with the support of federal government that provided Rs436 million to execute the project.
The briefing given on this occasion was shared by Qaiser Iqbal Baryar, Chairman Board of Management of SIDC, Hassanien Javed, Provincial Chief SMEDA, Sheikh Jahangir Iqbal, Member Board, Waseem Lodhi and Sarwar Hanif, Project Director. Whereas, the LEJA delegation was led by its President Muhammad Riaz Chaudhry.
