PESHAWAR, Oct 11: A lot needs to be done to increase the volume of gem export and there is a large market in India for precious and semi-precious stones from Pakistan if the government takes steps to provide facilities to potential buyers.

These views were expressed by exporters and officials during the annual four-day Pakistan Gems and Mineral Show that started here on Monday. The 11th annual exhibition has been organized by the All-Pakistan Commercial Exporters Association (APCEA) in collaboration with the Export Promotion Bureau.

Local traders have set up 28 stalls, exhibiting polished and unprocessed specimens of precious and semi-precious stones. Imran Nazir, chairman of the gems and mineral show, said that foreign buyers, especially from the United States, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Sri Lanka and Thailand, had already arrived while traders from India and Japan would arrive here tomorrow. He said that they had shown a keen interest in local gemstones.

He told this correspondent that Peshawar was fast becoming a centre of gemstone export, adding that the flow of gemstones from Peshawar to abroad had increased by as much as 60 per cent against gems exported last year. In 2002-03, gemstones worth Rs5 million were exported from Peshawar and it had increased to Rs8 million in 2003-04, he said.

But, a senior EPB official said that Pakistan exported gems worth Rs28 million during 2003-04. The exhibition's chief organizer said that the gem export could be increased manifold if the government facilitated Indian buyers.

"India is a huge market for gemstones. Indian traders are very much interested in buying coloured and rough stones from Pakistan after the recent improvement in relations between the two countries."

He said that India did not possess major gemstone deposits but it exported precious stones worth $10 billion. "Indian expertise in gemstone polishing and cutting has captured markets in the Western countries," he added.

"China is the next emerging market for gemstones," he said, and urged the government to chalk out plans to attract Chinese buyers. Pakistan has a large variety of gemstones and is located close to some of the main international gem markets such as the UAE, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong and India.

Gemstones on display at the show include emerald, topaz, aquamarine, ruby, tourmaline, lapis lazuli, kunzite, jade, fluorite, peridot and granite. Deposits of precious stones exist in areas including Mardan, Swat, Hazara, Mohmand Agency, Bajaur Agency, Malakand Agency, Chitral, the Northern Areas and the Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

Earlier, NWFP Governor Syed Iftikhar Hussain Shah, urged exporters at the opening ceremony to become more dynamic and vigorous and capture new markets for their products, adding that they should make efforts to promote their businesses on their own and not sit idle waiting for government support.

"Pakistan, especially this province, is bestowed with a wide range of gemstones of the best and rarest varieties in the world. But unfortunately, despite the abundance of variety and potential, the gemstone industry is still in its infancy stage and its contribution in national exports continues to be abysmal and insignificant," the governor said.

Expressing concern over the primitive methods used in the mining sector, he said that hammers, hand-picks, pneumatic drills and dynamites were being used by unskilled labour that resulted in massive damage to gems, adding that it caused a colossal loss to the national economy.