PESHAWAR: A large number of people mostly youth visited stalls of various precious stones, gems, jewellery and other handicrafts displayed at a three-day exhibition, which began at the Peshawar Museum on Friday.

The provincial government is organising the gems and jewellery show in collaboration with the Royal Gems Gallery (RGG), Tourism Corporation Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, All Pakistan Commercial Exporters Association, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Empower the Nation Organisation (ENO) and Directorate of Archaeology and Museums KP.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa minister for mines and minerals Ziaullah Afridi and adviser to the chief minister Amjad Afridi inaugurated the exhibition during a ceremony.

The show is an effort to boost the gems and jewellery sector with active participation of women entrepreneurs, and attract investments in the sector, besides building up a soft image of the terrorism affected Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, said Saima Umar, one of the organisers, and RGG executive director.

Speaking on the occasion, Nuzhat Rauf, former president of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry, urged the government to talce serious steps for tapping the province`s rich mineral resources to boost gems and jewellery sector inKhyber Pakhtunkhwa. She also suggested that a gems training centre should be established under public-private partnership to train youth in cutting and polishing preclous and semi-precious stones to boost exports.

Ziaullah Afridi said the provincial government had announced a comprehensive mining policy forpromotion of gems and jewellery sector along with tapping of other natural resources under public-private partnership. The minister said the government was also taking steps to train youth in cutting and polishing precious and semi-precious stones.

Adviser to the chief minister, Amjad Afridi, said the govern-ment`s top priority was to promote and revive tourism, and cultural activities in the province. In KP, he added that over 13 projects had been initiated in that regard.

He said that the government was working on preparing a comprehensive youth policy, adding that a sports city would be set up at Urmarh Maira.