Gems and Jewellery Industry Research Questionnaire
Name: Shahid Arafi Company Name: Arafi Gems Contact information: 021-35219247 1. Is the Gems and Jewellery sector still dependent upon traditional techniques of designing jewelry? Yes or no? Yes 2. If yes, then why? Because our workers find better working with traditional methods 3. What are some of the major machines used in the process of designing gems and jewelry? Chemical polishing machines,casting..now CAD is coming in market 4. Is the sector trying to innovate and improve? Yes or no? Yes 5. If not then why? If yes then what are the recent developments? We have integrated IT with our business and Internet provides a great deal of variety in designs 6. How is the workforce trained? Through observational learning, institutions or otherwise? Do you feel a trend shift is also taking place towards more institutional learning? Workforce has their own skills they learn by what you call through dynamic learning i.e. learning by doing 7. Is the labor force skilled and trained according to international standards? Yes or no? They are skilled but not exactly as compared to international standards 8. If the workforce is unskilled then what are the underlying reasons behind it? Government lack of support for training of this human resource
9. What can be done to further train the workforce?
Proper guidance in terms of trainings should be provided to them..they should be exposed to new methods and technology and the aid that government gets should be used to give incentive to the poor workers 10. How would you classify the level of investments in this sector compared to other industrial sectors of Pakistan on a scale of 1 10? (1 being the lowest and 10 the highest) 6 11. Based on the answer above, what is the reason for the level of investment? I.e. if it is low then why and if high then why? Prices are increasing day by day. people purchase habits are changing they are buying less Plus the nature of business is that it is capital intensive but it is profitable due to very high prices
12. What can be done in order to boost investments? What incentives can be provided? Some incentives to be provided by government exhibitions should be held frequently to attract investment..Prices should get lower
13. Would you consider artificial jewelry to be a threat to the sectors profitability and overall survival? Yes or no. Not really 14. If you answered yes above, how does the sector plan to cope up with the threat from artificial jewelry and minimize the competition?
15. Does the law and order situation of the country affect the business of the sector adversely? Yes or no? Yeah it do to a great extent.. 16. How intensely is law and order affecting the sector? How much does it approximately cost a normal firm in profitability in a given year? People are not making investments as there is a lot of uncertainty in environment and thus they prefer to keep cash..Our profitability gets affected to a small extent as we operate on high prices 17. Do you believe that the gems and jewelry sector has overlooked marketing of its products? Especially on the international front? Yes or no? Marketing is not on a very wide scope internationally it is only through our website and trade exhibitions that we get orders
18. If you answered yes above then why is there very limited marketing? What can be done to enhance this important aspect of the industry? More exhibitions and foreign investors should be allowed to come in Pakistan and in the trade exhibitions
19. Is energy availability a problem for the sector? Yes or no? Yes because casting requires electricity 20. Is the sector finding alternative energy sources for its own use? Yes or no? No...We use UPS and generators
21. What is the potential of the gems industry in Pakistan? Do you believe that we are reaching our full potential in this industry? We arent up to the full potential..We can export more provided the government supports us in terms of human resource training and provide opportunities to conduct regular exhibitions
22. What potential exists in the export of gem jewellery? There is potential in gem jewelry as women do prefer gems in their jewellery plus Pakistan does not have scarcity of gems
23. What can be done to help this industry do better? More sophisticated Gem cutting and shaping tools to be used..foreign market should be tapped more for the export of gems but this could only be done when we have reached perfection in shaping and polishing the gems
Thank you for your cooperation and time!
Gems and Jewellery Industry Research Questionnaire
Name: Maqsood Ahmed Company Name: Jewel Dcor Contact information: 021-35656141 1. Is the Gems and Jewellery sector still dependant upon traditional techniques of designing jewelry? Yes or no? You cant say exactly outdated... but yeah we rely on old methods 2. If yes, then why? For delicate designing manual work is there usually as the workers are skilled in making such designs and have experience in it 3. What are some of the major machines used in the process of designing gems and jewelry? Polishing and casting machines usually 4. Is the sector trying to innovate and improve? Yes or no? Yes 5. If not then why? If yes then what are the recent developments? We are focusing to copy new designs in the international market and make unique designs 6. How is the workforce trained? Through observational learning, institutions or otherwise? Do you feel a trend shift is also taking place towards more institutional learning?
7. Is the labor force skilled and trained according to international standards? Yes or no? They are skilled in their own way of working I would say but they lack knowledge related to new designs 8. If the workforce is unskilled then what are the underlying reasons behind it? Not really unskilled..their knowledge is not updated regularly and still they work with old concepts in mind
9. What can be done to further train the workforce? Their knowledge can be updated by giving them opportunities to learn abroad about jewellery designing and incentives should be given
10. How would you classify the level of investments in this sector compared to other industrial sectors of Pakistan on a scale of 1 10? (1 being the lowest and 10 the highest) Around 8 11. Based on the answer above, what is the reason for the level of investment? I.e. if it is low then why and if high then why? Well people can invest here as the potential is there but it requires capital for investing in shops and machines. People consider gold as safe heaven so they do invest in it.
12. What can be done in order to boost investments? What incentives can be provided? Gold prices should get bit lowered other than that government should support and conditions in the country also affects the business we operate
13. Would you consider artificial jewelry to be a threat to the sectors profitability and overall survival? Yes or no. No 14. If you answered yes above, how does the sector plan to cope up with the threat from artificial jewelry and minimize the competition? 15. Does the law and order situation of the country affect the business of the sector adversely? Yes or no?
Yes obviously..People nowadays purchase less jewellery as they are aware of the street crimes going on .. 16. Do you believe that the gems and jewelry sector has overlooked marketing of its products? Especially on the international front? Yes or no? Yes our marketing is limited 17. If you answered yes above then why is there very limited marketing? What can be done to enhance this important aspect of the industry? All the gems and jewelers should themselves attend the international exhibitions and take orders
18. Is energy availability a problem for the sector? Yes or no? Yes 19. Is the sector finding alternative energy sources for its own use? Yes or no? No..we use generators
20. What is the potential of the gems industry in Pakistan? Do you believe that we are reaching our full potential in this industry? We have a huge potential for both export of gems and jewellery but we need proper marketing and government support I would say..
Thank you for your cooperation and time!