Over the past three decades, the world's stone industry has experienced an average annual growth of nearly 7.9 percent in production and exports, according to the International Exhibition of Iranian Stone. China, Brazil, India and Turkey have the largest share in this growth. According to the available statistics, on average, from 1996 to 2013, regardless of inflation, this industry in our country has also experienced a growth of twenty-one percent. However, not only has there been no particular support from government agencies and legislators for the industry, but some measures have prevented the industry from developing. Examples include:

The presence of processing units in global markets requires serious government support in the export sector. In this regard, competing countries have supported their stone industry. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Industry did not provide any of these facilities to the units of this industry inside the country.

At present, the lack of love for the country's decorative stone mines has caused them to be in a critical situation, so that out of 1,900 licensed mines, about forty percent of the mines have been closed due to economic problems and lack of markets. Seven million tons of mines, only seven and a half million tons are extracted. Given that the country's domestic market does not have more traction to attract processed stone and also the country's share in global markets is not significant, in this case, instead of supporting this sector, the government decided to impose tariffs on stone cup exporters to stop another part of Mines and the unemployment of more workers and miners, especially in the regions, have been deprived, which, in addition to contradicting the policies and principles of the resistance economy, will also cause local and regional social problems.

Due to the critical situation of ornamental stone mines, which have stopped for a long time and the rest of the mines produce mainly below the butterfly capacity, and despite the decision of the Decorative Stone Industry Policy Council to receive government salaries based on loading, unfortunately the Ministry of Industry does not take any practical action. The Policy Council has not done so. Meanwhile, the ministry has increased government salaries tenfold in 1392, and the government is demanding unloaded stones with heavy fines.

 * Repeating the unsuccessful experience of collecting duties on stone exports

The experience of the ninth government's unprofessional decision in 2010 regarding the application of export duties of 70% on the country's export coupe stones caused the mines of this sector to face many problems.

In 2010, along with the reduction of coupe exports from eight hundred and fifty thousand tons to six hundred thousand tons, we saw an increase of six hundred thousand tons of coupe exports to Turkey. In other words, with an unprofessional decision, the neighboring country and one of Iran's major competitors in the stone market. In the global stone market. On the other hand, since 2010, even after the repeal of the decree, Iran's share of the international crude market has always been declining, and Iran has not been able to regain its share.

Contrary to expectations, the increase in export duties on coupes, apart from creating a climate of mistrust in the country's stone buyers, did not have any positive effect on increasing the export of processed stones. The year 1390 has arrived. These statistics clearly show the ineffectiveness of non-expert pricing policies.

In this report, it should be noted that China is the largest producer and consumer of stone in the world. But the remarkable thing about China is that it is also the fourth largest exporter, despite being the largest importer of cobblestones. This shows that due to the level of technology and production capacity of China, the added value of the export of some stone coupe items is more than its processing and production. This is true for all stone-producing countries.

India, the world's second-largest producer of coupes, is also the world's largest exporter of coupes, exporting about 30 percent of its manufactured stone and 30 percent of its processed stone. In addition, Turkey is the third largest producer of coupes in the world, which has achieved one of the most successful stone industry development programs in the world. It exports forty-five percent of its manufactured coupes and more than 80 percent of its processed stones.

 Considering these figures, Iran is the fourth largest stone producer in the world with a production of about 20 million tons of stone coupes. Unfortunately, due to the extensive domestic market, poor quality of products, weakness in international marketing and branding, unfortunately a small share in trade. It has a world.

Despite the fact that our country's reserves are the fourth largest in the world in terms of mineral reserves and decorative processing capacity and extraction, due to the unreasonable prosperity of the domestic market, exports in the last twenty-five years vary between seventy to two hundred million dollars. That's less than $ 23 billion in global trade. Given the current deep recession in the domestic construction market, the most important development strategy for the industry, which has a high capacity for growth and job creation, is to expand exports. Export development of the products of this industry will be achieved with the simultaneous development of production and export of two parts, raw stone and processed stones. In this regard, it is necessary to pay attention to the following points.

In many target markets, the import tariff on processed stone is high, and it is almost impossible to export processed stone to those countries due to the cost price in Iran. The only way to enter the market and create Iranian decorative stone branding in these countries is to export stone coupes. Otherwise, the share of the country's stone industry in such markets will be lost and rival countries, including Turkey, will replace Iran.

In addition, the cost of processed stone in Iran due to structural problems of stone factories, lack of competitiveness, high interest rates, insurance rates higher than the global soft, high VAT rates, transporters, low productivity, no Training in processing units and poor management is higher than in all competing countries. On the other hand, the major part of the country's processed stone that is exported is also exported to markets that do not have strict quality standards.

* The closure of 1,000 stone quarries / mine production is only a third of the capacity

Ahmad Sharifi, secretary of the Iranian Stone Association, said: "Unfortunately, the high potential of the mining sector, especially in the field of stone, is not being used these days, while the mining sector can be a special help to the country's economy in the current situation."

He said that about 2,100 exploitation licenses have been registered in the field of stone mines, of which 1,000 have been closed, adding: "This figure shows that our nominal capacity is 30 million tons of production, but unfortunately only ten million tons of products." It is produced by these mines, which is one third of the current capacity.

The secretary of the Iranian Stone Association stated that by solving the problems of stone mines, we can definitely achieve at least fifty percent of the production capacity in these mines, adding that the country's domestic consumption of stone is about eight million tons. However, according to the latest statistics, only 600,000 tons of raw stone have been exported, which is due to the escalation of problems in the stone mines and the application of 20% export duties.

Sharifi said: "When the mines in the country do not have a market to sell their surplus products, on the other hand, the imposition of duties will make the activity process difficult for them, and they will certainly not be able to operate." It seems that no one is responsible for the wrong policies in the mining sector, and only a non-expert decision can be made on a temporary basis.

* Why is the mining sector exposed to the wrong and unprofessional decisions of the Ministry of Industry!

He said that in 1392, the wrong decision of the Ministry of Industry was implemented with the recommendation of executive consultants and 70% tolls on stone exports. He said: The percentage was wrong and it was zero. But the question is, why not deal with an official who makes the wrong decision to impose export duties.

The secretary of the Iranian Stone Association stated that the wrong decision of the 70% export duties caused the suspension and unemployment of many stone quarries in the country, and specified: At that time, the stone export markets were practically lost. At present, 20% of the export duties on stone have been imposed, and the Deputy Minister of Mines himself has recently emphasized that these tolls are wrong and is trying to correct them, but one must ask why the mining sector is exposed to such wrong decisions.

Sharifi said that this wrong decision caused the export of 300 million dollars in 1397 to reach fifty million dollars last year, adding: In the processed stones sector, we have six thousand and five hundred producers that have a capacity of two hundred million square meters. But unfortunately, their production is seventy million square meters. If the right policy was used for stone processing units, we would certainly use our full capacity and even be able to export fifty million square meters, which would eventually bring in one billion two hundred and fifty million dollars of resources.

He said the current capacity and even investment should be used to make the leap in production in the mining sector. Instead of helping, the government is only throwing stones at miners.

* The 20-year mining law does not apply

Sharifi complained that the law passed by the parliament for mining has been in force for 20 years, saying: "If only the law had been fully implemented in the mining sector, we would not have seen these problems today."

"Unfortunately, the mining law is not enforced, including Article Fourteen," he said. The country should be spent by the Ministry of Industry in order to optimally carry out the tasks and missions of the development of the mining and mineral industries sector, but unfortunately, this issue is not implemented at all.

The secretary of the Iranian Stone Association added: "In addition, twenty percent of government salaries should be spent on optimal exploitation and protection of mineral resources and promotion of productivity, research, development, exploration and environmental protection." In another note, the government is required to pay 15 percent of government salaries to build the city's welfare and development infrastructure, which has not been implemented.

Sharifi criticized the government for enforcing the penal code only under the law, saying: "We need to think fundamentally about the mining sector, otherwise we will not see the growth and development of this sector."

* Tasnim