FPCCI’s presidential candidate Daroo Khan Achakzai on Wednesday said Pakistan has three trillion tonnes of marble and granite which can help country earn handsome foreign exchange and cut unemployment.
Pakistan is producing best quality marble and granite but only a fraction is sold after value addition which calls for intervention by the government, he said.
Speaking to the business community, Daroo Khan Achakzai said that some countries import raw marble and granite from Pakistan and sell it in the international market which must be noticed.
Pakistan is the sixth largest extractor of marble and granite but its share in global extraction remains only two per cent which can be increased through serious efforts.
The business leader said that stakeholders are focused on exports of raw material which is hindering the development of this sector.
The business leader said that 78 per cent of marble and granite reserves are located in the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa while the rest are in Fata, Baluchistan and Sindh facing primitive methods of mining results in wastage and poor quality.
This sector is facing problems like law and order, energy crisis, the high cost of electricity, poor road infrastructure, lack of loans which must be addressed while government can help the miners to import latest machinery which will infuse a new life in this sector.