Youstone interview with representative of the Qatar national stone trade fair(May 4-7, 2015)

• I request you as a representative of the Qatar Fair Company, explain us about the Qatar government visa issuing procedures and the reason for the denial of Iranian participants’ visas until exhibition opening.

We have been organizer of Iranian participants of the Qatar Project Fair for the last 6 years and, we have never faced such a problem. This year, we applied for visas earlier than previous years. Organizer Company should request visa according to license issued by Qatar Ministry of Trade (we also have same procedures in our country).

At the beginning , a list of participants from all over the world with their passport copies, should be sent to the Qatar Ministry of Trade at a specified date. Then, they determine whether to issue avisa or disapprove a participant’s application, based on received lists and their issued licenses. Finally, there will be some accepted participants of say, 1500 persons.

• Please let’s know how long before the opening, the Qatar government should inform this confirmation to participants?

Normally, we apply for visa one month before the opening date of the fair. We send participants documents for the organizer company of the fair. Then, they pursue the required processes in a week and finally they send all received lists to the Ministry of Trade who send confirmed application to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to issue visas based on their rules and regulations. This year, same process is followed and Iranian participants’ visas were issued. But, at the end, issued visas were sent to the Ministry of Interior for political and security checks to determine which countries get license to attend. Finally, they denied visas for Iran, Russia, Lebanon and Pakistan. Most of Lebanese and Pakistanis participants could get the visa until the trade opening. But Iranians and Russians could not attend at the trade. As a result, 900 square meters space which belonged to these two countries were empty and covered.

• Has the Qatar’s government announced anything officially to Iran’s government?

The Qatar government has done nothing to clarify the situation or apologize officially. As I said before, there is an explanation on the website about visas status which says “under process”, it means the visa issuing is in process and there is no specific problem.

We have requested the authorities for investigation into the matter, but our complaint won’t cure the problem for the present time. However, it might be a solution and avoid further damages for future cases. We don’t know yet about the course of actions our Foreign Ministry and Embassy will conduct and how they complain about the case and the way Qatar’s government will respond. So far, we have received no response from any party yet.

Maryam Shaghaghi of Youstone interview with Mr.Motamedi of Nojan Rad co. (Iranian representative of IFP (Qatar Natural Stone Trade Fair )

Study of Iraqi Kurdistan Stone Market

Iraq’s market is divided into northern and southern divisions, the northern division consists of Dohuk and Hawler, which imports stone from Turkey. This is because of two customs (Zakho & Ibrahim Khalil) that are the most important customs in terms of facilities. Early recognition and investment in this market and long-term planning by Turkey, has earned them the trust of the market. It should be noted that, Turkey’s export is not limited to this area only, but the stone market of whole Iraqi Kurdistan imports from Turkey. The southern division has border with Iran, and there are 2 boundary trading market located there, Bashmakh and Siran Band in Baneh; however only Bashmagh border is used for this purpose.

The only active quarry in Iraqi Kurdistan is called Halan, you can see some of the stones extracted from this quarry in figure 1.

Figure 1: Stones Extracted from Halan Quarry

There are two main problems about Iran stones:

• Lack of trust, this is because of wrong behavior from Iranian exporters and the low quality products they have exported
• Governments lack of investment in Iraqi Kurdistan’s stone market, and also there is not a decent way for exchanging money.

Different paying methods

• Credit Card
• Cooperative
• Paying in Advance

In respect to current situation and lack of trust in Iranian exporters, credit card method is the most secure method at the moment.

Building stone export company of Kerman province, is one of the active companies that export stone to Iraqi Kurdistan, which has started its activity since 2011. According to the conducted studies, the exported stone is supplied by quarries in Khorramabad, Isfahan, Azerbaijan, Kurdistan and Kerman.

In terms of importance, cream Travertine comes first and then it comes to Granite and Marble.  Of course in this market, any other stone that is well marketed can be profitable.

Amount of exported stone to Iraqi Kurdistan is mentioned in the following table for 2013 and 2014:

Table 1: Exported Stone from Sanandaj Customs 2013-2014

Table 2: Exported Stone from Bashmagh Border 2013

 Table 3: Exported Stone from Bashmagh Border 2014