AIRIA chalks out action plan for rubber industry's growth

Mumbai, Nov 30 (UNI) The new managing committee of All India Rubber Industries Association (AIRIA) today enumerated their action plan for the year 2007-08.

AIRIA president M F Vohra laid down the areas of focus for the new committee for the coming year.

Speaking on the agenda, Mr Vohra said, ''Since its inception, it has been the endeavour of AIRIA to highlight the issues of the industry and to liaison with the Government regarding these issues.

The current committee will take previous efforts forward and will try to remove the bottlenecks facing the industry, in an attempt to make the Indian rubber units more competitive and cost effective.'' ''We will also try to facilitate international trade by looking at options to reduce transaction costs,'' he added.

According to the roadmap, AIRIA will be setting up consultancy centers at its regional offices. These centers will be directly monitored by the head office in Mumbai. They will also be promoting the need for education, training and factory visits within the workforce at each unit. ''This will help each one to understand the processes better and the crucial role each needs to play to become more competitive. It will also enable exchange of ideas which is very important for units to grow,'' explained Mr Vohra.

The new committee will also focus on strengthening the image for AIRIA and increasing its visibility as an apex industry body. In order to protect the interest of the member units and to provide them with proper feedback, AIRIA will be closely following the world rubber market scenario via studies and forecasts provided by bodies like International Rubber Study Group and others.

Also on the agenda is the need to solve the issue related to quality checks of imports.

UNI