The stone that broke
Iran's stone industry these days with a variety of problems, including recession; High bank interest rates; There is rent-seeking and lack of government support.
According to the International Iranian Stone Exhibition, the representative of decorative stone producers complained about the recession and the heavy interest rates on banking facilities, and called for more support from the government and officials for the decorative stone industry.
Mehdi Heidarzadeh, one of the producers of decorative stone, said: "Our first problem is the recession, which has really put pressure on producers."
Heidarzadeh added: "The second problem we have is the adoption of laws that tie our hands and is not less than a recession. For example, municipalities have created a committee called the facade committee, which prevents the use of stone in the facades of buildings and requires that Firebrick or fireclay must be used for the facade.
The decorative stone manufacturer added: "This is due to the strong lobby of brick manufacturers and this has caused rents."
Iman Alaghband, president of the Decorative Stone Association of this section, confirmed Heidarzadeh's words and said: it should not be required to use only a special material in the facade.
Saifullah Amiri, Director General of Civil Industries of the Ministry of Industry, confirmed Mr. Heidarzadeh's words and said: "We even once said that they should use stone instead of street bricks and sidewalks, but they protested and said, 'You want to take our bread. We want this every year.' Rebuild and replace them if we use stone that no longer spoils and our bread is cut and they have a powerful lobby.
Amiri added: "Of course, alternative goods for stone have also entered the market, such as composites and ceramic tiles, etc., which are cheaper than stone."
Heidarzadeh, a producer of decorative stone, continued: "Why should we intensify the recession with cumbersome laws?"
The manufacturer also described the decorative stone industry as traditional and added: "We are not up to date in terms of hardware, ie equipment and machinery, for export, and other than that, we really have liquidity problems and producers are under heavy loan pressure."
Heidarzadeh said: "When we participate in foreign exhibitions, we see that there is no desire to cooperate with us and we can not sell our products and part of our problems are due to political issues, while Europe itself is thirsty for Iranian stone and stone." Our products are exported to Europe through intermediaries.
Iman Alaghband, the president of the Decorative Stone Association, criticized the lack of a degree in universities regarding the stone industry and said: "Countries like Italy have a doctorate in mining and decorative stones, but in our country the field of mining is not developed and the field should be Specialized in decorative stone, iron, etc. to be established in the country.
"The production of stone is different in the world," he said. "The production of stone is different and it is obsolete in the world as we have in the country, and we must be able to upgrade our knowledge and improve the quality of the produced stones with modern equipment." Reach the world level.
The head of the Decorative Stone Association said: the stone production units in the country work with one third of their capacity.
Referring to the signing of an agreement with the Italians to hold training courses for Iranian stone producers, Alaqband said: "It has been a long time since the decorative stone headquarters was established in the ministry and the government has failed to support decorative stone producers and export markets." The same is true in Italy, even in Turkey, where the government pays for the exhibitions.
The chairman of the Decorative Stone Association said: "The stone industry is sick. In order to know that the industry has grown and is in good condition, you must remove the duties from similar imports. If it can survive and compete, that industry is good and prosperous, but for the stone industry." , Iran's cars and shoes can not survive and go bankrupt if import duties are eliminated, these industries are sick.
Saifullah Amiri, Director General of Civil Industries of the Ministry of Industry, also said: we should increase the quality; Provide technical knowledge upgrades, equipment upgrades and proper management, and support for export market producers.
* Tasnim
