Draw strategy to boost sales, marketability of artisans’ products: Baseer Khan to officers

Srinagar, Aug 26: Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Baseer Ahmad Khan Thursday chaired the 3rd Joint Board of Directors meeting of J&K Handicrafts (S&E) Corporation and J&K Handloom Development Corporation at Civil Secretariat here.
The Board of Directors meeting was attended by Principal Secretary Industries and Commerce Department, Ranjan Kumar Thakur, Managing Director J&K Handicrafts (S&E) Corporation and J&K Handloom Development Corporation, Hashmat Ali Yatoo, Director Handicrafts and Handloom Kashmir, Mehmood Ahmad Shah. BoD members from Jammu attended the meeting through video conferencing.
While chairing the BoD meeting, Advisor stressed on framing a comprehensive marketing strategy so that the handicraft, handloom and other handmade craft items from J&K can be marketed in a very effective manner.
While directing officers to explore various other non- conventional marketing methods, the Advisor directed for proper e-marketing of the products, so that the ambit of marketing of handicraft and handloom products is broadened besides increasing the scope of providing these in untapped markets nationally as well as globally.
He directed the officers to lay special emphasis on marketing strategy and said that success stories of some successful e-commerce sites should be replicated for increasing the marketability of the produce of the artisans.
He also directed them to pace up the progress of upcoming showrooms at Pahalgam, Gulmarg and other vital locations which witness huge footfall of tourists.
The Advisor also asked the Handloom Development Corporation for enhancing value of the products coupled with better marketing strategies that will fetch better returns for the corporation. He also directed the Corporation to place bill boards of Emporium showroom at Airport and other locations for the information of domestic and foreign tourists.
Managing Director J&K Handicrafts & Handloom, Hashmat Yatoo gave a presentation about the functioning and the progress of the various aspects of the Corporation.
He informed that the corporation to benefit the grass root level artisans of J&K took a major step by changing its policy of procurement from SCR to own trading thus benefiting directly the artisans of J&K and eliminating the role of middlemen. The purchase is being made out of revolving fund created by the Corporation and also gets support from the Government’s side in the shape of CAPEX budget. The procurement policy was made more transparent and artisan friendly following all the procedures.
Regarding providing space to artisans to market their produce, MD informed that the Corporation has come up with a solution to help them by providing space in Corporation showrooms located at all prominent places under the name of Direct Marketing Assistance.