Indian government officials on Friday announced to provide technical support to Afghanistan to develop its stone and marble industry.
R.K. Gupta chief executive officer of the Centre for Development of Stones on Friday said India would provide all possible support in this effort as there there was huge untapped potential for development of stone industry in Afghanistan.
Mr. Gupta further added that the Centre had been providing similar help to many other countries.
This comes as a delegation of the Afghan officials met with Centre for Development of Stones officials during “India Stonemart 2013” event.
R.K. Gupta quoted by New York Daily News said, “There are some amazing stones in Afghanistan which can be mined and processed with the help of new machines and technologies.”
He said, “We would like to see a strong participation of manufacturers from your country in the next Stonemart in 2015.”
The Centre has offered assistance to Afghanistan in association with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO).
In the meantime national programme officer, UNIDO-ICAMT Deepak Ballani said a rehabilitation package had been made for Afghanistan nearly three years ago, but it could not be implemented because of the conflict in that country.
Around $2 billion will be used to help develop the stone industry in Afghanistan according to the plan that would also involve technology transfer, conducting a geological survey on the actual amount of reserves and imparting of skills.
