A delegation of marble sector businessmen visited Islamabad Chamber of Commerce & Industry (ICCI) to discuss various problems being faced by the marble industry and called upon the government to take urgent measures to address their issues that would greatly help in promoting export of marble products.
Addressing the delegation, Acting ICCI President Shakeel Munir said that Pakistan has immense potential to enhance export of marble products and government should help marble industry in improving its competitiveness in order to earn better foreign exchange revenue for the country.
He said despite possessing enormous 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 government in regular supply of power and gas, marble exports could double in a few years. He said marble industry has the capability to become the backbone of the economy and government should pay priority attention to this important but ignored sector of the economy.
He said government should patronize the marble industry in adopting latest mining and processing technologies as well as setting up of modern quarries. He said government should provide good incentives to this sector and provide easy credit at low interest rates to marble industrialists for business expansion.
The delegation members highlighted the various issues of marble industry. They said the high electricity cost, use of obsolete mining techniques, lack of capital, law & order issues 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 set up marble cities and establish more training centres in the country for capacity building of the marble sector businessmen to facilitate better growth of this industry.
