REILEAP project gains speed with its first face-to-face meeting in Uzbekistan

Within the framework of the REILEAP project, the first meeting of the partners with a physical presence took place in Tashkent between 13 and 16 October. REILEAP now completes the first - out of a total of three - years of its implementation, and the foundations have already been laid for its successful completion. The project, which is coordinated by the Technical University of Crete and has partners from four European countries, aims to modernize, innovate and enhance the competitiveness of the leather and leather products industry in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan through the creation of Skin Product Centers at four universities in Tashkent, Jizzakh, Shymkent and Taraz. The centers will offer quality control and product certification services as well as training of students and industry executives in digital design, production organization, modern design and fashion trends as well as in the financing of business plans.

The meeting, which was hosted at the Tashkent Institute of Textile and Light Industry (TITLI), received particular promotion, while Mr. Prof. Nikolas Bilalis and Mr. Demosthenis Papakonstantinou, administrator of CRETHIDEV, were interviewed by state television. Particularly important was the meeting and visit to the headquarters of the Association of Leather and Footwear Producers of Uzbekistan, in the context of which the rapid progress of the sector that has managed to increase the added value of exported leather and products, limiting to a minimum the exports of semi-processed leather that dominated a few years ago.

Snapshot from the visit to Showroom, at the headquarters of the Association of Leather and Footwear Producers in Tashkent.