Government support sought to boost carpet production

KUNDUZ (Pajhwok): Officials of the Carpet Weavers Union (CWU) in northern Kunduz province have asked the government to support the carpet industry by holding exhibitions, building industrial parks and providing raw materials.

CWU Head Abdullah Kalantar said the weavers produced over 28,000 square metres of carpets during the past one year.

Kalantar added carpet production could increase in this province if industrial parks are built and weavers provided with raw materials.

He said: “We request from the government of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) to complete the works of the carpet weavers’ industrial park, because it had positive impact on our production range.”

A number of Kunduz carpet weavers made similar requests.

One of the weavers was Abdul Rahman, he said: “The quality of the imported yarn to Afghanistan is low, if yarn is produced domestically; it would improve the quality of the product and would block the way of capital flight from the country.

Seddiqullah, another carpet weaver believed that the set-up of a separate industrial park for the carpet weavers play an important role in the improvement of this business.

Mohammad Rahim Seerat, Kunduz Commerce and Industry Department Director said efforts are underway to provide carpet weavers with good quality raw materials, set-up a special industrial park and address their problems.

Seerat said: “We support the industrialists of this province, efforts are made to resume the works of the half-finished industrial park, we talked with some donor-organizations, they promised their cooperation in this regard.”

According CWU figures Kunduz City, the provincial capita, Qala-i-Zal, Dasht-i-Archi, Chahardara, Gul Tepa and Imam Sahib districts produced most of the Kunduz carpets and in the provincial capital of Kunduz.

Aw/nh