A delegation of marble industry business people visited Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and industry (ICCI) to discuss issues being faced by the marble industry in Pakistan and called upon the govt. to take urgent measures to handle their problems that would be greatly helpful in promoting export of marble products.
Addressing the delegation, Acting President of ICCI Shakeel Munir said that pakistan has nice potential to boost export of marble products and government should facilitate marble industry to enhance its competitiveness so as to earn higher foreign exchange revenue for the country.
He said despite possessing huge reserves of wide variety of marble stones, Pakistan’s marble exports were still far below its real potential and added that with the support of the govt. in regular supply of power and gas, marble exports might double in a very few years. He said marble industry has the potential to become the backbone of the economy and government should pay priority attention important vital but neglected sector of the economy.
He said government should patronize the marble industry in adopting latest mining and process technologies as well as fixing of modern quarries. He said government should provide better incentives to the sector and provide easy credit at low interest rates to marble industrialists for business expansion.
The delegation members highlighted the various problems with marble industry. They said the high electricity cost, use of obsolete mining techniques, lack of capital, law & order problems in major mining areas, inconsistent power supply, insufficient infrastructure from mines to ports, improper transportation facilities etc. were the major hurdles that were holding back this industry from realizing its full growth potential. They said government should establish marble cities and establish additional training centers in the country for capacity building of the marble sector businessmen to facilitate higher growth of this industry.
Source: Pakistan Today