To expedite the process of setting up a special notified zone for rough diamond trading, the government has sent a team of senior officials to study the trading models in Belgium and Dubai before firming up a policy for India.
The sending of the team, comprising officials from the ministries of commerce and finance as well as the Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), is a “clear indication that the government is serious about establishing the special notified zone at the earliest,” Pankaj Parekh, vice-chairman of the GJEPC, told FE. The officials are expected to be back in India this week.
The special notified zone is aimed at removing middlemen and encouraging overseas diamond mining companies to open their offices at the designated places in the country to sell rough diamonds directly to Indian manufacturers.
The move is important as although 90% of the world’s rough diamonds are polished in India, domestic manufacturers have to source the commodity from places like Antwerp or even Dubai. Industry executives have said direct souring of rough diamonds from exporting nations such as Russia is a must for making India an international trading hub.
“The special notified zone will give the Indian diamond industry a strong competitive advantage against other diamond trading centres of the world like Antwerp, Dubai, etc., by saving time as well as foreign exchange spent on travel to these trading centres or establish offices there. It will also ensure steady supply of rough diamonds in the country,” commerce minister Nirmala Sitharaman had said in December.
In December last year, during the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as many as a dozen Indian companies got into a memorandum of understanding with Russia’s state-owned Alrosa for direct imports of rough diamonds worth $700 million annually for over three years.
“A diamond may have the Russian foot-print, but it will also have an Indian finger-print on it,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said at the World Diamond Conference in the presence of Putin in December, referring to the fact that Russia accounts for roughly 30% of global rough diamond output, while nine out of 10 of the world’s rough diamonds are polished in India.
