From March 14 – 16, the SID-in fair takes place in Antwerp. Like every year, the Antwerp diamond industry is one of the many participants. Together with the ‘Fonds of Diamantnijverheid’ and ‘HRD Education’, AWDC makes sure there is plenty information about the industry and our polishing courses.
The student counselling centres of the Flemish Government and the ‘Agentschap voor Onderwijscommunicatie’ organize the SID-in fair every year in all 5 Flemish provinces. At the SID-in fair, students who are about to finish secondary school can find a lot of information about all their possibilities after graduating.
From May 10th – 13th the AWDC Antwerp Diamond Pavilion will participate for the first time in the Jewelery Shanghai 2013 trade fair. This initiative is made possible in close cooperation with Shanghai Diamond Exchange, GAC, HRD Antwerp and the Belgian Consulate in Shanghai.
AWDC offers you a 4 day program at a competitive price of €6500. This program includes a standard booth in the Antwerp Diamond Pavilion (9m2), participation in the Antwerp Diamond Night - an exclusive networking opportunity with Chinese buyers - on May 11th and a Meet and Greet with Chinese VVIP buyers on May 12th which includes a speed date session at the show venue and an exclusive cocktail reception at the Belgian Consulate in Shanghai. Furthermore, costs include a Chinese translator and promotion for the Antwerp Diamond Pavilion.
Allotment for participation will take place on Monday March 18th at 11 am, AWDC -1. Please confirm your presence by e-mail via marcom@awdc.eu.
Last December, HRD Antwerp sealed a historic agreement of cooperation with the Chinese National Gems & Jewelry Technology Administrative Center (NGTC). Both institutions will join forces in investing in research and development, education and diamond grading.
The cooperation between NGTC and HRD Antwerp shows the commitment of both institutes to invest in research and education and further develop the expertise in diamond grading. Both sides will take their technical advantages to cooperatively study and tackle the problems about theory and practice of classification in special color. Meanwhile, NGTC will synchronously use the Lumisense (colour grading instrument) from HRD Antwerp to make the diamond colour to be more objective and unanimous.
The agreement was signed last December, in the presence of Ms Ke Jie, Director of NGTC, Mr Bi Lijun, Vice Director of the Ministry of Land and Resources Gems & Jewellery Technical Management Centre and Mr Georges Brys, General Manager of HRD Antwerp.
In the Chinese diamond market, NGTC is an authority in gem research, technology, jewellery trading and appraisal of jewellery. HRD Antwerp from their part is an authority in the Belgian and global diamond industry, famed for its highly reputable diamond grading lab, high technological equipment, research and in-house expertise.
George Brys: “This agreement will help the public to better understand the unique characteristics of diamonds. Customers will benefit from it, as certificates will become more transparent. By combining the research efforts of both HRD Antwerp and NGTC, diamond certificates will more than ever, be the proof of ultimate confidence for the customer”.
From February 20th – 25th AWDC set up an Antwerp Diamond Pavilion at the 6th edition of the annual IIJS Signature fair, organized by the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council of India (GJEPC) in Mumbai, India. It was a success.
Exhibitors were given the opportunity to meet with people from around the globe. Amongst them were CEO’s of the most important jewellery companies, governmental organizations, prospective buyers …
During the fair, AWDC promoted Antwerp as leader in the global diamond industry by informing visitors about the unique business climate and expertise that characterizes the Antwerp diamond industry.
If you are interested to participate in one of the Antwerp Diamond Pavilions, please click here for more information.
More information about market trends in India can be found in “The global diamond industry, portrait of growth”, recently published by AWDC in collaboration with Bain & Company.
On February 20th, a high-level meeting on diamond took place. The city of Antwerp, the Province of Antwerp and the diamond industry discussed their shared projects and current diamond affairs.
Following issues were discussed:
• Antwerp ITCCO
• Mobility and liveability in the diamond square mile
• Security
• Quality label
• Studies direct employment and economical impact diamond
• Diamond polishing course
• Diamond museum and visitors centre
• Other issues
This high-level meeting is a unique opportunity to discuss and coordinate various projects with important partners as the City and the Province. Thanks to this, our future cooperation’s will be more efficient and our current projects will be concluded in a mutual beneficial way.
In light of recent articles in the press, we would like to offer you some clarification regarding the recent developments regarding Zimbabwe and the EU Restrictive Measures vis-à-vis the mining company Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC).
The European Restrictive Measures aimed at ZMDC remain in force and can only be lifted one month after the presidential and parliamentary elections that will take place later this year. This would make the diamond import from Zimbabwe/Marange to Europe possible again.
However, the Council communicated two important conditions:
The sanctions will not be lifted if:
• the Council agrees that the elections were not peaceful, transparent and credible;
• the Council finds there are reasonable grounds to believe that ZMDC has been involved in activities undermining democracy during the elections.
As a consequence, diamonds produced by the ZMDC cannot currently be imported into the EU and Belgian market.
The measures as described in the decisions of 15/12/2011 and 15/02/2012 remain in force.
The full text of the Council decision can be found here:
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2013:046:0037...
On February 5th, a first meeting regarding a possible concept study about a new quality label for diamond jewelers took place. AWDC, the city of Antwerp and several jewelers discussed the possibilities.
The city of Antwerp commissioned AWDC to initiate a new study that investigates the possibility and creation of a new diamond quality label. This will protect the consumer and increases Antwerp’s position as diamond city. A similar initiative was proposed in the Antwerp Diamond Masterplan – Project 2020 by AWDC. That is why AWDC considers this study to be an excellent opportunity to promote the so called ‘fifth C’ (Compliance, Confidence).
