No more smuggling of Afghan carpets to Pakistan: Azizi

MAZAR-I-SHARIF (Pajhwok): Acting commerce and industry minister on Wednesday stressed to stop the smuggling of Afghan carpets to Pakistan and would start legal export of the product to the neighbor country.

Nooruddin Azizi, commerce and industry minister made the remarks at a press conference in northern Balkh province on Thursday.

He said that there are some plans for the improvement of the carpet industry, which will facilitate export of Afghan carpets through land and air corridors in the near future.

For promotion of the Afghan carpet industry, a number of exhibitions would be organized at home and abroad to display the product and find a good market for them, he said.

Azizi said that a part of a new industrial park which will be opened in Mazar-i-Sharif, the capital of Balkh province, will be reserved for carpet weavers and industrialists.

On the other hand, carpet manufacturers say they are faced with some challenges in exporting domestic carpets to abroad.

Noor Mohammad, who has been working in the carpet industry for years, told Pajhwok Afghan News that banking restriction was one of the main problem the carpet industry was currently faced with.

Another problem is closure of all routes for exporting carpets to foreign countries, he said, adding that when using Pakistan route, the carpets usually damaged by rains or sometimes they catch fire.

Syed Hafiz Sadat, a carpet trader in Balkh, said that they had problems with transportation, transit, taxation and use of substandard materials related to the carpet industry.

Abdul Satar Bigzada, another carpet trader in Balkh, also complained about lack of coordination in the sector and illegal trafficking of carpets, saying the problems has caused huge losses to them.

He said that the lands of carpet industrialists have been usurped and they were unable to recover them despite several attempts.

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