March 20, 2007	Tuesday	Safar 30, 1428

ISLAMABAD, March 19: The government plans to enhance export of gems and jewellery from $29 million to $1.5 billion annually by 2017 through a new Rs1.4 billion investment.

Official sources told Dawn on Monday that a decision has been taken to develop an internationally competitive gems and jewellery industry by removing various impediments in it.

They said Pakistan's gems and jewellery industry suffers from limited investment in research, product development and training, low levels of technology, traditional mining techniques, underdeveloped lapidary facilities and skills, high raw material costs, poor international marketing and branding.

The industry also suffers from underdeveloped designing capabilities, limited linkages with domestic and international support infrastructure, limited identification and certification, and lack of hallmarking.

With new project, they said, there would be a significant impact on value-addition, productivity, income levels and exports.

Exploration and exploitation of gemstone resources and value-addition based on them is a part of medium-term development framework (MTDF).

The proposed project is based on a comprehensive plan and strategy for upgrading the gems and jewellery industry in Pakistan.

It will focus on establishing common facility training and manufacturing centres to upgrade existing technology and processes and jewellery manufacturing.

It also seeks to establish gem identification and certification laboratories to ensure better understanding of gemstones and their properties, along with establishing gem exchange centres to facilitate linkages between buyers and sellers.

Despite its abundant reserves of precious and semi-precious gemstones and rich history of jewellery manufacturing, Pakistan has been unable to develop an internationally competitive gems and jewellery industry.

Capitalising on its vast natural resources, low labour costs, and skilled craftsmen and growing national and international demand, Pakistan has the potential to position itself as regional hub for precious stones cutting and jewellery manufacturing.

"Developing this potential will have a significant impact on Pakistan's economy in terms of increase in employment and entrepreneurship, income-generation, export, revenue and poverty alleviation" said a document submitted to the Planning Commission by Pakistan by the Gems and Jewellery Development Company (PGJDC).

The project will introduce modern know-how and practices and equipment, both for jewellery manufacturing and gemstone mining and processing/cutting, to finished products for local and export market.

Foreign experts would be engaged which include sector experts, master trainers and geologists, along with the transfer of technology.

Gemstone deposits are concentrated in NWFP, Northern Areas, Azad Kashmir and Balochistan. Most gemstone processors are clustered in Karachi and Peshawar with smaller clusters in Lahore, Quetta and Islamabad.

Consisting of mainly small and medium entities, growth of this sector will also have positive externalities for social indicators, such as heath and education, the Planning Commission was informed.

Current mining technology and processes are considered rudimentary and unscientific resulting in significant wastage at the extraction stage.

Indiscriminate blasting damages the gemstone crystals and mineral specimen, thus drastically reducing their value. In a majority of the mines, basic machinery and equipment, like compressors and drill sets, are not available.

"A large number of mines are currently inactive due to lack of equipment". Training in modern mining practices will reduce wastage and improve the quality of extracted gems, thereby, increasing the income in productivity and consequently in salaries.

Access to mining equipment will rehabilitate closed mines which will have an immediate impact on employment levels.

"Due to lack of adequate processing infrastructure and skills, approximately 75 per cent of Pakistan's exports are in un-worked stones, representing a significant loss in value-addition".

With the up-gradation of gemmological and lapidary training and processing infrastructure, a higher volume of exports will be in processes stones, leading to tremendous value-addition.

By enhancing the income levels of those directly involved in mining and trading, it will have a spin-off effect for the entire region, the Planning Commission was further told.