Gems, jewellery sector will be provided necessary facilities: minister

ISLAMABAD: Waseem Ajmal Chaudhry, Federal Secretary Industries and Production Monday said Pakistan’s gems and jewellery sector had a huge potential and the government will provide all necessary facilities to the sector for development and to reap the benefits of the natural resources.

While addressing an international workshop titled, “value addition of gemstone products for compliance with international standards” organised by the National Productivity Organization (NPO), Pakistan in collaboration with the Asian Productivity Organization (APO), here on Monday, underlined the need to encourage foreign companies to invest in this sector to help improve the economy and open up opportunities for the local population through employment generation.

He underlined the need to focus on the training and skill enhancement of the local workforce, besides promoting diversification and industrialization of the gems and jewellery sector to increase its contribution to the country’s economy.

The workshop is being attended by delegates of 18 countries including Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam from APO member countries as well as 11 local companies.

The main objective of this program is to review international standards on gemstone products, to provide comprehensive knowledge of cutting, polishing, designing and heating techniques, and to enhance understanding of best practices and technological advances in gemstone value chains including manufacturing, standardization and trading.

The workshop was informed that the gemstone sector strategy was formulated jointly by the private sector, USAID and the government of Pakistan. The government and other stakeholders agreed to further develop this sector on a continuous basis. The gemstone sector has contributed a lot towards the development and uplift of the gems and jewellery industry of Pakistan through skill development, technology up-gradation, quality assurance and marketing/branding. The government of Pakistan is committed to increasing the export-oriented growth of the industry as it has great potential to give global recognition to Pakistan.

Waseem Ajmal, who is also director APO Pakistan said that the value addition of gemstone products for compliance with international standards appreciated the APO’s role in the development of the Asia-Pacific region.

He further said that it is time to revitalise our commitment and to strive to achieve APO’s vision of inclusive, innovation-led productivity growth in the Asia-Pacific. He added that working in tandem with APO, Pakistan will be able to find solutions to long-standing issues of productivity.

He said nature has bestowed Pakistan with the largest treasures of gemstones. The northern and north-western parts of Pakistan are shrouded by the three world-famous ranges called Hindukush, Himalaya, and Karakorum including Swat and Mingora regions National Productivity Organization (NPO) is facilitating to complement and strengthen the ministry’s mandate through its vision “Economically Productive and Globally Competitive Pakistan”. The NPO is solely responsible for productivity and quality enhancement in Pakistan.

Nobutsugu Miyama, programme officer Asian Productivity Organization, while extending cooperation of the APO to Pakistan, said that the implementation of a national productivity programme will help the country to boost economic growth which ultimately will benefit the masses by improving their life standard.

Chief Executive Officer NPO Muhammad Alamgir Chaudhry said that his organisation is committed to achieving efficient, sustainable, and inclusive industrial development. Pakistan is a naturally blessed country having large reserves of mineral ores and 18 varieties of gemstones widely used in ornament. Swat has reserves of 70 million carats of emerald, Mardan has reserves of nine million carats of pink topaz, Kohistan has 10 million carats worth of reserves of peridot, In Hunza, pink to red crystals of ruby are found. He said Pakistan will collaborate with other countries such as Thailand to setup training institutes to acquire the youth with the best skills for developing the gemstone sector in Pakistan.

Chaudhry said that competitiveness in public and private sectors must be promoted to increase industrial productivity for achieving economic growth and prosperity.

He said, “We need to be efficient in our productivity tools including output increase, human resources, technology and process of different industrial value chains for achieving industrial growth to enhance our trade volume with the world.”

“The local industrial sector is lacking the efficiency in its value chain through technology, productivity, innovation; managerial productivity and human labour productivity, which are the major tools to enhance the productivity and efficiency in the local industrial sector,” he said.

While sharing the cooperation of the NPO with different industries, he said that his organisation was fully committed to cooperate with the major sectors of the economy including agriculture, textile, leather, and sports to enhance the efficiency of the value chains of these sectors for achieving productivity at optimum level.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2024