Italian businessmen have started looking towards Pakistan for the exploitation of its marble and granite reserves to keep their marble industry alive as after about 25 years the Italian reserves of these mineral wealth would exhaust.
Speaking at a press briefing held at the Italian Trade Commission office on Thursday about the upcoming conference on Italian marble and granite, Italian Consul General Dr Bruno Pasquino said Italy's marble reserves would exhaust in about 25 years, and it would need raw material to keep its marble industry going.
The Italian Trade Commission under the auspices of the Consulate General of Italy is organising a conference on Italian marble and granite machinery and technology in Pakistan on behalf of the Association of Producers of Marble Institute for the Stone Culture on March 15 at a local hotel.
Pasquino said it was the right time for investment in Pakistan, adding: "We do not have the raw material (marble and granite), and you do not have the technology, but excellent quality of enormous amount of onyx, marble and granite."
In mining sector, he said Italy is pioneer in introducing mining technology by extensive research and development, adding mining is carried out on modern lines in most countries except for a few developing countries, including Pakistan. Standard quarry wastage in the world is taken at 50 percent of the gross produce, however, in Pakistan this quarry loss is estimated 61 percent to 73 percent, he said.
He said there were bright chances of joint venture in the marble sector, and the businessmen of the two countries should come together and draw benefit out of this exceptional opportunity.
Pasquino said: "You take machinery for the marble industry, and pay in marble - a perfect match for joint venture."
The consul general said the conference would be purely a businessmen venture, and the Italian government through its consulate would act as a facilitator between the businessmen of the two countries. "It is like building bridges for the business community to move forward", he added.
He said once the process was started, more foreign investment in marble and granite and other sectors would come.
Italian Trade Commissioner Dr Emilio De Matteis said more than eight Italian companies were expected to participate in the conference.
He said Italy was one of the major trading partners of Pakistan. During the past two years, exports and imports between Pakistan and Italy has increased, but the rise in exports had been faster than the imports, he added.
He said the balance of trade had remained in favour of Pakistan, which increased from $50.2 million in 2000-01 to $56.5 million in 2001-02, adding the export from Pakistan to Italy increased from $229.7 million in 2000-2001 to $239.4 million in 2001-02, thus showing an increase of 9.7 percent.
Matteis said that Italy had been the largest importer of granite and sandstone for the last five years and accounted for 39.4 percent of the total imports with a value of $415 million in 2002.
He said in Pakistan only a few units were equipped with proper equipment and machines to minimise losses and produce quality marble and marble products.
"Generally Pakistani finished goods are of poor quality. Processing wastage of 45 percent to 55 percent has been estimated", he noted.
He said Italy had 2,500 years' history of marble industry, and had been a leading nation in the dimensional stone business for centuries, adding: "It has a long base of model mines with the highest global average for quarry production and state-of-the-art processing industry."
The primitive mining techniques existing in Pakistan do not allow extraction of standard blocks, he said, adding major factors for the decline in Pakistan's marble industry are slowdown in the construction industry, lack of quality production and an inconsistent and irregular supply of raw material.
The Italian trade commissioner said the extraction in Pakistan comprised boring of holes in the bedrock, which were filled with explosives to blast the block, adding: "This results not only in a high wastage (up to 73 percent), but also in smaller stone size, which substantially reduces the price, which is directly proportional to size."
He said that holding such kind of conference was to build more concrete commercial relations between Italy and Pakistan in the marble sector by equipping Pakistan with latest technology and know-how to explore new prospects and better business possibilities.
Balochistan Business Forum president Sardar Shoukat A K Popalzai said the proposed conference would be a major step towards confidence building between the businessmen of Italy and Pakistan.
He said the extraction of marble in Pakistan was yet to be developed and value-addition to all marble products were needed to be done with the help of modern machinery.
Popalzai said the conference would send a positive message to the international business community showing Pakistan as the right place for investment, adding the training programmes for the manpower involved in the marble sector would follow the conference.
He said the Italian Trade Commission in Pakistan was extending all help and assistance in making the coming conference a success.
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