Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed today called for concerted efforts to maintain the quality and enhance the volume of production of the state's famed handicrafts to attract international buyers.
"Top international firms will only visit Kashmir for buying handicraft products if we make concerted efforts to maintain the quality, enhance the volume of production and give the artisans, who possess the rare art of making some of the finest hand-made products in the world, a level-playing field," the Chief Minister said here.
He was speaking to a delegation of Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry Kashmir (CCIK) which is planning to organise a three-day Mega International Buyer-Seller Meet in which reputed business firms from all over the world will visit Srinagar for an exhibition of famed Kashmir arts on carpets, shawls, paper-machie, wooden pieces and crewel embroidery.
Sayeed said the government will extend support to the Mega International Buyer-Seller Meet as it will promote handicraft products.
Describing artisan as a cog-in-the-wheel of Kashmir handicraft, Sayeed said any international buyer-seller meet should also highlight their rare craft of making such exquisite products.
"These meets should not only prove beneficial to exporters but artisans as well, who remain the industry's main stakeholders," the Chief Minister said emphasising upon CCIK to promote and protect interests of the artisan community.
Crediting the artisans for sustaining the state's wavering economy when it confronted its most turbulent phase, the Chief Minister said the handicraft sector will continue to remain a thrust area for the government, given the huge potential it has in national and international markets.
"Their nimble hands have woven the best of shawls and carpets from within the confines of their homes when the Valley fell on hard times," he said.
