Mian Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo, advisor to the Prime Minister on Industries, chaired a briefing on Pakistan Stone Development Company (Pasdec). Ehsanullah Khan Chairman Pasdec gave a detailed briefing about the various projects of Pasdec.
He told that Pasdec is working on 43 different projects which include development of marble cities, model quarries, up-gradation of existing quarries, Common Facility and Training Centres (CFTC) etc. He informed that one model quarry established by Pasdec, has started working in Khuzdar (Balochistan) and two marble-cities one in Risalpur (NWFP) and other in Fata - are ready for ground breaking.
The Chairman further told the 120,000 direct and 500,000 indirect employment will be generated under various Projects of Pasdec. He also revealed that due to the efforts of Pasdec marble export increased from 14 million dollar to 23 million dollar in the last year. In the current year its export increased by 43 percent. Wattoo observed that Pakistan is rich in natural resources and marble and granite is abundant in different areas of the country.
"We need to do more to exploit these resources to the maximum," he said. "There is a huge potential of developing mines in Balochistan," he added. Wattoo directed the Pasdec and officials of the MOI&P to work out the possibility of Italian investment in Pakistan's marble and granite sector as Italy is much advanced in this sector.-PR