admin(Zimbabwe) Diamond and Jewellery Institute managing director and area representative Mr Sakiwe Ndhlovu said that Zimbabwe could have a diamond information centre that served Africa and compete on the world diamond market.
“That way the world will come to us on equal terms and on fair trade practices,” he said.
Mr Ndhlovu said Zimbabwe should start envisioning a situation where the diamond would become a standardised unit of exchange just as the gold bullion.
He said Zimbabwe should also start envisioning itself driving a vibrant diamond bourse for Africa, adding the country had the skills and capacity to manage such an innovation.
Meanwhile, Mr Ndhlovu said the diamond symposium that was supposed to take place last month had been moved to February next year as it coincided with the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) plenary that was held in the DRC recently.
“We realised that our programme was coinciding with the KPCS plenary in the DRC and a lot centred on the decision that was to come out of there and some stakeholders thought it wise to postpone,” he said.
He said the recent authorisation by KPCS of Zimbabwe to export diamonds was in favour of the symposium.
“With Zimbabwe’s authorisation to sell its diamonds we now stand in a favourable position to hold this convention without much opposition and therefore we are now working on a new programme line-up which will now be in February of 2012.”
The KP monitoring team will verify compliance of operations of the other producing mines to KP minimum requirements.
The plenary endorsed the nomination of a KP monitoring team consisting of Mr Abbey Chikane and Mr Mark van Bockstael.
Zimbabwe stands to earn more than US$2 billion per year from the Marange diamonds, which will enable it clear its external date valued at U$9 billion over a short period of time. – New Ziana.
Online Reporter