News
Filters
This week, AWDC welcomed the two winners of the cycling event ‘Fortengordel’ organized by the Province of Antwerp on May 19th.
This year, the cycling tour was diamond-themed. Two participants of the interactive search event won the first price, a tour behind the scenes of the Antwerp diamond industry and a diamond, donated by the Antwerp World Diamond Centre.
Bart Deckers (47): “We were already looking forward to parcipate in the event and we returned home with a diamond. On top of this complete surprise, my wife and I actually met on the 19th of May, making this price even more special. All the more reason to use this diamond for a very special piece of jewelry.”
On May 22nd 2013, Marcel Pruwer was elected as new President of the Board of Director of the ‘Beurs voor Diamanthandel’. He will follow in the footsteps of Maurice Fischler, who served the Board for 2 years. AWDC extends its gratitude for his commitment and wishes Marcel Pruwer a lot of success with this new challenge.
The new Board of Directors consists of:
- Dhr. Marcel Pruwer – President
- Dhr. Jacques Roth – Vice President
- Dhr. Yves Diamant – Executive Director
- Dhr. Raphael Rubin – Executive Director
- Dhr. Kalpesh Bakhai – Board Member
- Dhr. Liran Horovitz – Board Member
- Dhr. Jacques Korn – Board Member
- Dhr. Alain Majerczyk – Board Member
- Dhr. Kaushik Mehta – Board Member
- Dhr. David Pienica – Board Member
- Dhr. Avi Pinchasi – Board Member
- Dhr. Bernard Weinberg – Board Member
The ‘Fonds voor Diamantnijverheid’, HRD Antwerp and AWDC are organising a polishing course ‘fancy cut’ for experienced polishers. Under the supervision of expert Jef Van Cleuvenbergen, participants will be able to fine-tune their skills regarding the fancy cut.
This course is an initiative in the framework of the Antwerp Diamond Masterplan – Project 2020. The industry and its partners committed to create multiple jobs in both the diamond and related sectors by 2020.
The course will run from July 1st till July 12th. The ‘Fond voor Diamantnijverheid’ and AWDC will pay for the course and HRD Antwerp will provide the necessary resources. So there is no subscription fee, but participants will have to bring their own stones and polishing equipment.
In addition, employers will be able to recuperate a large part of the participant’s wages through the system of “Paid Educational Leave”.
Participation for the free perfecting course is limited to eight polishers.
If you are interested, please contact Mr Yves Bollekens (Yves.bollekens@rvd.be).
As part of the "Anti Tiger Kidnapping Program", AWDC Security Office launches monthly ‘security awareness training sessions"’. The first training takes place in the AWDC building on June 28th between 11AM untill 12 noon. The objective of this training is to increase the overall level of security awareness and discuss prevention measures on Tiger Kidnapping.
Each stakeholder within an organization, ranging from CEO, office staff, to family level implies different perspectives, specific needs and requires a different approach on Security Awareness. That is why the training sessions are subdivided per stakeholder, with a tailor-made approach for each of the following three categories.
1. CEO's, general managers, managing directors of diamond trading companies
2. Office staff of diamond trading companies
3. Family members and house staff of CEO's, general managers and managing directors of diamond trading companies
The first training session on June 28th is targeted at CEO’s, general managers and managing directors of diamond trading companies. In time we will organize separate ‘security awareness training sessions" for each of the remaining categories.
Participation is based on a first come, first serve principle with a maximum of 15 participants. There is no subscription fee but we will apply a cancellation fee of 50 euro.
To register, please send an e-mail with your name, company name, e-mail address and mobile phone number to saskia.schillemans@awdc.be.
On May 31st, AWDC welcomed a delegation of UNIZO (Organization for the Self-Employed and SMEs) for a tour behind the scenes of the AWDC, Diamond Office and the HRD Antwerp diamond lab.
Aim of the visit and meeting between the high-level UNIZO delegation and AWDC officials, was to allow them to get better acquainted with the diamond industry, its strenghts and the challenges it faces.
Considering the crucial economic role of the Antwerp diamond industry from a local, national and international perspective, informing UNIZO on how the industry operates was very much appreciated.
Above all, the visit demonstrated that in various domains, both parties share a great deal of interests and concerns.
In conclusion, UNIZO and AWDC discussed several topics more in-depth and contemplated on how both organisations can develop a joint approach in tackling future, shared challenges.
In January, AWDC launched its brand new promotional movie. Starting today, this movie is also available in Hebrew. U can download the movie via our website here. It is free to use to put it on your website, show it to your clients …
Antwerp & Diamonds, a brilliant story!
Issued by the Federal Public Service Economy, EU KP Authority, Belgium
From May 14th – 16th, an official delegation of Gokhran of Russia visited Antwerp. The visit, hosted by the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) aimed to exchange ideas and information regarding state diamond controls. Other parties involved were both representatives of the Federal Public Service Economy and Customs officers of the Federal Public Service Finance,as well as a representative of DG Taxud of the European Union attended the workshop. All parties expressed their satisfaction as to the quality of content and openess of their discussions.
