Moazzam Ghurki, who leads the Pakistan-China Joint Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCJCCI), talked about the big opportunity for Pakistan to make a lot of money by selling marble products to other countries. But he said that the government needs to solve various problems in the marble industry to make this happen.
Pakistan is the 6th largest producer of marble and granite in the world, and it has a lot of marble and granite in the ground, about 350 million tons, and 64 different types. Ghurki said that to sell more of this stuff to other countries, Pakistan needs to fix things like using old-fashioned ways to dig it up, expensive electricity, old mining methods, and not having good roads and buildings for the industry. He also said that the government and private companies should work together to make the industry better.
Fang Yulong, who is also part of PCJCCI, added that the government should let companies bring in machines without paying taxes to help them dig up marble more efficiently. He said that the old ways of digging up marble waste a lot of it, and if they use modern machines, they can make more money from exports. Yulong also talked about problems like high electricity costs, not enough money for the industry, safety issues, and not having good roads and supply chains. He said that marble exporters should get financial help to go to trade shows in other countries, investors should get loans to buy modern machines, and training centers and safe workplaces should be made to help the industry compete better. He also said that China is interested in Pakistani marble and suggested that they work together to build a place for marble businesses and more training centers in Pakistan.
