Marble industry President seeks govt attention

ISLAMABAD: 

Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry President Muzamil Hussain Sabri has claimed that the government should focus on resolving marble industry’s problems, considering that it has a great potential to improve exports by upgrading technology and value addition.

“Pakistan is the sixth largest extractor of marble and granite in the world and reserves of these stones are estimated at around 297 billion tons.However, despite huge deposits and long-term export potential, Pakistan merely has a two percent share in the global market of marble products, which is negligible,” he stated.

He said that the marble industry is employing over 30,000 workers but due to several issues that include a chronic power crisis, outdated quarrying techniques, inconsistent supplies of raw materials and lack of value-addition among others are major obstacles that need to be addressed to make the industry sustainable for growth.