New Marble-Processing Facility Inaugurated at Marble Conference Opening

HIRAT, AFGHANISTAN | MAY 25, 2011 — In its third year, the Afghanistan International Marble Conference opened in Hirat Province with a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Equity Capitol Mining’s new $6-million modern marble-processing plant. Constructed through a multi-national effort and with USAID’s support, the Doost Marble Plant, plans to export more than $2 million of the highest-quality marble each month, and create 140 direct and 500 indirect jobs for Afghans.

Speaking at the ribbon cutting, U.S. Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry emphasized the remarkable progress of the Afghan marble industry and the continuing need to develop this valuable resource. Ambassador Eikenberry said: “Expanding the marble industry in Afghanistan has the potential to create thousands of jobs, stabilize a struggling economy, and generate a significant amount of revenue for both the Afghan private sector and the Afghan government.”

The two-day conference is bringing together hundreds of marble producers, processors, business representatives, international investors, and government officials to showcase the country’s wealth of marble, address industry challenges, and to learn about new investment and business opportunities. The second day of the conference will feature presentations from the Ministry of Mines, the Afghanistan Investment Support Agency (AISA), the Afghanistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Export Promotion Agency of Afghanistan to address the industry’s potential, the investment climate, and doing business in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan marble boasts more than 100 high quality varieties, spanning diverse colors and patterns. Current marble exports are estimated at $15 million per year. With improved extraction, processing, infrastructure, and investment, the industry has the potential to grow into a $450 million per year business.

This year’s conference was organized in the framework a strategic partnership between the Afghanistan Marble Industry Association and the Government of Afghanistan, AISA, and with support from USAID and the Italian Embassy. USAID is working closely with the Afghan Government, international donors, Afghan marble industry associations, and the private sector to maximize the potential of Afghanistan’s marble sector to generate employment, attract greater investment, and increase industry profits.

Chapter 5

CONCLUSIONS/JUDGMENTS:

as we clearly mentioned in all chapter about marbles specially marbles in Afghanistan and to regional markets and of marbles and the largest competitors the exporter and importer of the marbles in Afghanistan the problems of the investor in Afghanistan and the achievement and the growth line which the less availability of expert in field of marbles and specific machinery in there and the lows for exporting the marbles and the rate of the transportation is the cause which we can hove the biggest investment in ambles industry Overall the cluster is not performing very well; however, there is potential for growth if strategic actions be taken by both the government as a policy maker entity and the private sector doing the actual work in the cluster. The paper concludes all the findings within the four attributes of the cluster diamond. Under each attribute, there are specific conclusions and judgments.

Conclusions under the “Factor Conditions:

Afghanistan marble is of best quality and is available in huge quantities with potential to supply the regional as well as the Europe and U.S. markets. The country has strategic location that is geographically accessible by Middle East and central Asian markets. These are the main factors that can increase the potential of growth for the cluster and can be considered as cluster comparative advantages. However, to have only comparative advantage in a cluster is not sufficient for development and growth. In addition to the comparative advantage, it is necessary to create competitive advantage in order to make the cluster-growth possible. There are other factors that are very fundamental to the development as well as growth of the cluster; these factors are very basic but essential, e.g., infrastructure such as roads, power plants, systems, and procedures in place that play very important role. Unfortunately, these factors are currently very weak in Afghanistan; however, progress is being made, which is promising. Security is another major factor to the development and growth of marble cluster. This is poor in certain parts of the country e.g., south and south east.

Conclusions under the “Demand Conditions:

There is high demand for marble in the domestic market. Currently 100% of processed marble is liquidated in-country. The nature of demand in the domestic market is not sophisticated at the moment, which does not give a hard time for the processing companies in the production process. This can be an advantage especially at this time since the marble companies are not well developed yet. Foreign market demand is sophisticated and the afghan marble producers cannot meet that standard given their current knowledge and quality production capacity. Additionally, the afghan marble producers do not have easy access to the international markets, too. Marble producers lack understanding of the requirements of international buyers.

Demand for unprocessed marble blocks exists in the form of illegal exports. Not all of the quarried marble is processed within the country. Unknown quantities are illegally quarried and exported to Pakistan for processing.

Conclusions under the “Related and Supporting Industries:

AMGPA as a support association exist that lobbies and advocates for the companies in the cluster. However, information sharing lacks amongst the members of the cluster though they come around the association. The leadership of the association does not play a more proactive and transparent role to keep the members of the cluster in a real team.

ASMED provides some minor supports to the marble companies through the AMGPA ,e.g., marketing exhibitions in Dubai last year is an example of the kind of support they provided to the marble companies. Banks are available to provide loans but against high interest rates, which does not encourage the investors to invest. Institutional support from the relevant ministries is poor. Ministry of Mines and

Industries does not take initiative to innovate such policies and strategies that would

further develop the industry as well as the cluster.

Afghanistan lacks manufacturing companies for equipments and machineries for marble processing factories. The marble processing companies need to import the machineries from other countries .

Conclusions under the “Context for Firm Strategy, Structure and Rivalry:

In terms of administrative procedures and policies, there is some legislation available; if put into practice, have the potential to facilitate development of the cluster. For instance ,minerals law of Afghanistan exists to govern marble quarrying and processing process. Partnership law exists to facilitate foreign direct investment (FDI) and domestic direct investment (DDI). However, in the real world, nothing considerable is happening in terms of investments. Easy and simple process for registering of companies is in place, which is a good point; however, MMI capacity is limited to initiate polices and strategies to create a better environment for marble business. In general, MMI leadership cannot think like an economist; they rather think like geologists. There needs to be some kind of balance that would encourage more investment by the private sector. For example, ministry’s pricing policy for royalty cost of quarrying is uncompetitive, which needs to be relooked and updated in a way that addresses the competitiveness of marble quarrying in terms of royalty prices. Throughout the government as whole and in particular at the Ministry of Mines and Industries, one can feel that the government employees have negative attitude towards the private sector; this creates a big obstacle against development of the sector. As a result of this negative attitude, wrong policies—such as the uncompetitive standard provisions for quarrying contracts have been developed that creates obstacles instead of facilitation. Marble business community lack marketing and business planning knowledge and skills. Rivalry is limited to domestic companies only.