He hoped that $ 500 million export target will be achieved in near future.

Pakistan is blessed with huge reserves of natural stone like marble and granite in multiple colors, shades and veinages, he said while speaking at a ceremony of APMIA Head Office.

He said that unfortunately the marble and granite sector could not exploit the resources to boost its economic development during last 60 years.

The Pakistan Stone Development Company (PASDEC) has now introduced mechanized quarrying through state of the art machinery to develop the marble and granite sector on modern lines, he added.

He appreciated APMIA's efforts in supporting PASDEC at times when it was needed.

He said that APMIA was the true representative body of marble and granite stakeholders.

Pakistan Stone Development Company (PASDEC), not profit organization, is dedicated to make Pakistan globally competitive and socially responsible player of the international dimensional stone industry, he added.

PASDEC is focused on achieving one goal, extraction of `'Square Blocks'. This strategy would have a trickle down effects through the value chain of the industry, achieving tremendous transformational impact, he added.

He said that PASDEC has established 29 prototype projects of marble and granite in short span fulfilling its due commitment to the sector. ``We established three Model Quarries at Khuzdar (Balochistan), Buner (KPK) and Chitral (KPK) and 10 Quarry Up-gradations in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhawa, FATA, Sindh and Punjab.

The Quarrying projects are producing `Square Blocks' of marble. The mechanized quarrying practices decrease the natural stone wastage ratio from 85 per cent to 40 per cent (mine to processing).

It also discourages blasting practices of extraction of natural stone which is not only dangerous to human life but is adding to environmental degradation."

He said that PASDEC has also established two warehouses at Gaddani and Risalpur for storage of raw stone and finished products of marble and granite.

While two machinery pool projects established at Gaddani and Risalpur are serving mine owners and lease holders to acquire modern quarrying machinery on nominal rental charges.

PASDEC will establish Marble City at Mohmand Agency (FATA), Risalpur and Loralai to facilitate processing with trained workforce and latest processing machinery and infrastructure.

Two Common Facility Training Centers (CFTCs) will also be established.

Sikandar Hayat Khan Jogezai Chairmain of APMIA and ex-chairmen Shahid-ur-Rehman, Abdusami and Saleem Mughal also present on the occasion.

They expressed their views on APMIA and their confidence on PASDEC and landed its performance.