Papua New Guinea (PNG), a country in Oceania, in the southwestern Pacific Ocean to boost its textile industry, the government run garment and textile training institute, a sleeping giant striving to make its stand in today’s small to medium business sector.

The training institution under the care of the SME Corporation has been serving, women, girls, men and youths in tailoring and textile programs in the bid to help improve their lives.

So far more than 3000 participants have graduated from the institution since the establishment of the program in 2002 and are now engaged in the SME business development sector in the country including Solomon Islands.

The Department of National Planning and Monitoring representative and keynote speaker Ms Betty Nime speaking at the 28TH Graduation Ceremony was overwhelmed by the participants’ efforts.

Ms Nime said that the government remains committed to creating an environment that is conducive to SME development and has already started to build business capacity trainings to support institutions such as garments and textile.

She added that a PNG Garment and Textile Industry Development Policy has projected that the domestic demand for garment and textile from 2002-2015 is about K3.3 billion in 2016-2022.

Work on elevating this institution to be registered as a National Apprenticeship and Trade testing centre is in progress as consultative meetings are currently underway.