Pegasus Sewing Machine Mfg. Co., Ltd. held a seminar in Honduras on the theme of "Maintenance and Adjustment of Industrial Sewing Machines." This seminar was sponsored by the Association for Overseas Technical Scholarship (AOTS). Pegasus holds seminars in various countries around the world every year, utilizing the AOTS overseas training program.

Honduras is close to the U.S.A., which is a major consumer of garments, and the sewing industry in this country has gained an edge in exports to the U.S.A. thanks to the CBI agreement. Regardless of these good conditions, it seems that the sewing industry in Honduras has fallen behind that in Asian countries, such as China, in the past several years.

This year Pegasus marks its 89th anniversary since its founding. Based on the experience and know-how gained during its long history, PEGASUS provided the garment manufacturers in this country with the basic knowledge on sewing and industrial chains titch machines.

The first half of the seminar began at San Pedro SuIa. The many guests of honor, included Mr. Masami Takemoto, the Japanese ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary in Honduras,Mr. Osmin Bautista, the deputy mayor of San Pedro SuIa, and Representatives from the Honduras Apparel Manufacturers Association, attended the opening ceremony.

At the opening ceremony, Mr. Hiroshi Oda, a Director of Pegasus Sewing Machine Mfg. Co., Ltd., gave the opening address. he talked about the path the Honduran sewing industry should follow in the future, according to the global trends of the sewing industry.

he raised the question of where the Honduran sewing industry should go in order to compete with sewing factories and other companies around the world, and put emphasis on an "Increase in Quality and Production" by promoting the improvement of technologies at this seminar, in order to survive this keen competition.

Bufalo, where the second half of the seminar was held, is one of many free zone industrial complexes in Honduras. all the sewing factories in the complex perform sewing for exports. The opening ceremony of this course was also held on a grand scales and attended by many guests of honor, including Mr. Felipe Borjas, the mayor of Bufalo, Mr. Hector Turcios, the chairperson of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Bufalo, and Mr. Henry Fransen Jr. from the Honduras Apparel Manufacturers Association.

The lectures carried out at San Pedro SuIa and Bufalo were focused on supervisors, chief mechanics and general mechanics working at each sewing factory. They first learned basic knowledge and then the disassembly, assembly and adjustments using real overedgers and interlock stitch machines. As the sewing machine industry is an important industry in Honduras as well as being an important foreign currency earner, each of the trainees was very enthusiastic and asked a lot of questions about the problems in their factories.