The Board of Industrial Collaboration to Enhance Fashion Exports held its third meeting at the Pakistan Institute of Fashion and Design in Lahore, with Chairperson Muhammad Kashif Ashfaq presiding over a session focused on strengthening digital capabilities, deepening industry-academia collaboration, and reviewing the institution’s 2026 to 2028 strategic plan. The central ambition of the strategic plan is the transformation of PIFD’s Design and E-Commerce Center into a central hub for Pakistan’s fashion, textile, and export sectors, positioning it as the primary institutional interface between the country’s academic fashion education infrastructure and its commercial and export ambitions.
The meeting commended four industry partners that had successfully completed specialised training programmes in digital design and brand development during the preceding period: Nishat Mills, Sapphire Denim, Interloop Denim, and Naveena Exports. Their participation reflected the kind of direct industry engagement that BICEFE has been designed to facilitate, bringing major textile and fashion manufacturers into structured skills and knowledge exchange with the academic institution rather than leaving the two ecosystems to operate in parallel. Chairperson Ashfaq also announced that the ChenOne group of industries would sponsor a delegation visit to Turkey to study its advanced design centres, gain international exposure, and explore best practices that could inform the modernisation of Pakistan’s own fashion and design sector.
On the operational and infrastructure side, the meeting discussed upgrading technical equipment at the Design and E-Commerce Center, introducing international trend-forecasting software including WGSN, and recruiting specialised technical staff to expand the centre’s capabilities. WGSN is one of the most widely used global trend intelligence platforms in the fashion industry, and its introduction into PIFD’s workflow would give Pakistani designers and students access to the same trend data and forecasting tools used by major international fashion houses and retailers, directly addressing a gap in the depth of market intelligence available to domestic producers and exporters.
Participants emphasised that stronger ties between academia and industry are essential for equipping Pakistani fashion and textile professionals with modern digital skills, improving product branding, and enhancing the global competitiveness of national exports. The meeting was attended by PIFD Vice Chancellor Hina Tayyaba Khalil, Trade Development Authority of Pakistan Chief Executive Officer Fiaz Ahmad Chadhar, board members, and senior PIFD faculty members, reflecting the multi-stakeholder commitment behind the institution’s transformation agenda.
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