Italian tech transfer support for granite exporters

Industry and Commerce Ministry plans to set up a committee to oversee issues per taining to the country’s granite exporters, a statement by the ministry said. The ministry also plans to obtain technical support for the local US 16 million granite industry from Italy.

“Italy is a keen consumer of our granite. Tech transfer support from Italy will g reatly benefit our mineral granite industry, which is very young. I am also looking at for mulating a special committee to oversee the welfare of g ranite expor ters,” Ri s h a d Bat h i u d e e n , Mi n i s t e r o f Industry and Commerce said.

” We a r e i nt e r e s t e d i n wat e r j e t g ranite cutting technolo g y from

Italy is a keen consumer of our granite. Tech transfer support from Italy will greatly benefit our mineral granite industry, which is very young. I am also looking at formulating a special committee to oversee the welfare of granite exporters

Italy. I will look into the appointment of a committee to oversee welfare of g ranite industry and g ranite exporter community,” Minister Bathiudeen infor med told Fabrizio Pio Arpea, the Italian Ambassador in Sri Lanka.

Ar p e a , re s p o n d i n g t o Mini s t e r Bathiudeen said: “The g ranite sector in Sri Lanka should be further incentivised and be expanded. The sector should be developed to compete inter nationally.” Fabrizio Pio Ar pea revealed: “Waterjet g ranite cutting technolo g y is an accurate and precise tech but is expensive.”

Minister Bathiudeen also infor med the Italian Ambassador that Sri Lanka is keen to increase granite exports in value added for m, rather than in unprocessed for m. “Value addition will bring in more forex for us” he said. “Also at this moment we are faced with g ranite demand for our increasing constructions” he noted.

According to De par tment of Commerce of Sri Lanka, total trade bet ween t he t wo c o untri e s re g i s - t ered US $ 6 6 2 . 4 1 milli on. I n 2 0 1 0 i n c r e a s i n g by 9 % ove r 2 0 0 9 . S r i Lanka’s total exports to Italy recorded a highest level of US $ 462.41 million in 2010.

Appare l p ro d u c t s a n d cl o t h i n g have been the major export items to Italy in recent years.

The total value of export of apparel products and clothing amounted to US $ 361.55 Mn. in 2010 (78% of the total exports) while other major exports were solid tyres (3.7%), Fish f i l l e t ( 2 . 9 9 %) and t e a ( 1 . 9 6 %). Sri Lanka’s g ranite also is a popular item among Italian granite processing industry.