Business News
Fresh know-how for the growing printing and packaging market in Uzbekistan
Wednesday 09. November 2016 - PrintPromotion GmbH organizes a seminar for specialist teachers in Tashkent, the capital of Uzbekistan
“The majority of the more than 1800 printing companies in Uzbekistan are rather small companies with older equipment, but modernization has started,” reports Ismail Bulanow, a trainer for “Printing and Design of Print Products” at the Tashkent Institute of Textile and Light Industry (TITLI).
In order to support the beginning modernization with fresh know-how, PrintPromotion GmbH is currently holding a three-day seminar for specialist teachers at the TITLI. Together with PrintPromotion, two trainers from the Chemnitz-based AZP training centre for print & media travelled to this country in Central Asia in order to make the 25 attending specialist teachers acquainted with modern, quality-assured printing processes ranging from data preparation to prepress and printing and further down the line to the post-print working steps.
A growing printing and packaging market
31.5 million people are living in Uzbekistan. The printing industry of this country radiates to the neighbouring countries, i.e., Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. In total, the Central Asian region has roughly 110 million inhabitants. According to Bulanow, the growing packaging market of Uzbekistan is a driver of modernization. “Only ten years ago, there were hardly any printing companies with flexo or gravure printing machines”. Furthermore, he points out that nowadays, there are about 20 companies with that specific technology in the packaging sector alone, and that digital printing is up and coming as well. “Meanwhile, many printing companies have digital printing equipment,” he reports, adding that there are, however, still no web-to-print companies.
While there is no printing technology manufacturing industry in Uzbekistan, the printing market is definitely considerable: Recently, sales were about 260 million US dollar. There are nearly 1000 newspapers and magazines and approximately 18,000 producing companies, above all in the food sector, in industry as well as the chemical and pharmaceutical sectors. Where items are produced, they are normally also packed – with rising quality demands.
Printing engineers come to Tashkent for qualification
The growing quality awareness manifests itself in the curriculum of the courses of studies that printing engineers complete at the TITLI. The agenda includes not only quality control and digital workflows in prepress, but also the variety of modern printing technology as well as automated post-press processes. In the printing department of the institute established in 1980, now 16 professors, teachers and research assistants train future printing engineers in courses of study for both a Bachelor`s and a Master`s degree. In total, the institute in Tashkent has four faculties with 4000 students and a total of 337 professors and teachers going in and out.
The 25 specialist teachers who participate in the presently given seminar for specialist teachers of PrintPromotion GmbH will spread the know-how that they now acquire in the printing industry in Uzbekistan. “As a result, they become multipliers of the growing quality awareness and the technical modernization,” explains Dr. Markus Heering, Managing Director of PrintPromotion GmbH, stressing that the specialist teachers are given an insight into modern processes and digital workflows that have just started to establish themselves in the local industry. They learn how to handle future-oriented technology with which they can then familiarize their trainees.
With this know-how transfer, PrintPromotion contributes to the qualitative and economic development of printing markets on all continents. “By showing the technical possibilities of modern printing technology and creating quality awareness, we indirectly generate a demand for the technology needed,” says Heering, further explaining that he, therefore, sees this seminar for specialist teachers also as an important contribution to the promotion of German printing and paper technology exports.