The bi-annual three day meeting of leaders of the different diamond bourses and trade associations from across the world, better known as World Diamond Congress, was held this year in Moscow against the backdrop of the ongoing controversy over export of rough from Zimbabwe and the role of Kimberley Process. It was also a time when the industry had slowly begun to emerge from one of the worst crisis periods it has seen in recent history.

These two aspects remained in the limelight throughout the meeting, with one or the other almost always being at the centre of discussions. Some of the groundwork and the strong words expressed by the diamantaires apparently had an effect and a couple of days later, a mini KP Summit, held on the sidelines of the World Diamond Council meeting at St. Petersburg, brokered a temporary truce that will allow the export of two shipments of rough from that troubled country,

The three-day Congress commenced with a ceremonial opening session that brought together the general assemblies of both the World Federation of Diamond Bourses and the International Diamond Manufacturers Association Guests of honour were Alexei Kudrin, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, and Fyodor Andreev, President of Alrosa. The opening speeches by the Presidents of WFDB and IDMA set the tone for the subsequent deliberations and discussions.

In his opening address to the Congress, WFDB president Avi Paz noted that the diamond industry continues to cope with after effects of the global economic crisis. He stressed that the industry continues to face challenges even today. “And in view of the situation, our purpose was - and still is - to sustain the viability and stability of rough supplies, and the continuation of manufacturing and marketing of polished diamonds", he said. Stating that WFDB played a “central and important role” in ensuring players in the diamond supply pipeline behave responsibly during the economic crisis, he outlined the focus for WFDB as, “Fortunately, in the past few Months we are witnessing signs of recovery and return to gradual growth. But we must continue looking beyond the daily trends and lead the entire industry toward the future with vision and courage.”

The perspectives presented by Paz and Ganz were discussed at separate WFDB and IDMA sessions and found resonance in the concluding remarks and resolutions of both the bodies.

WFDB called on the industry as a whole to internalise the learnings from the economic slowdown and to continue implementing policies such as a greatly reduced dependence upon memo sales and a reluctance to extend lengthy terms of credit that had come to the fore in the crisis period. It called for increased cooperation with banks financing the diamond industry to make credit available to all sectors of the industry, including small and medium sized companies as the diamond market enters a new growth phase.

Addressing the rough diamond producers, the WFDB General Assembly noted they should allocate sizable volumes of merchandise for sale outside of the tender system, which places smaller and medium manufacturers at a disadvantage. Also, since when buying on tender it is impossible to know for certain what goods will be obtained and at what price, it is difficult to implement long-term strategic planning, including manufacturing and marketing programmes.

IDMA’s concluding resolutions focused strongly on the Zimbabwe issue. While accepting that trade in non-KP certified diamonds should be prohibited, it called for immediate implementation of the KP monitor's recommendation to the working group monitoring (WGM) to certify the exports of those mining companies which meet the KPCS's members’ standards.

The organization also hoped that there would be significant progress on the establishment of the International Diamond Board noting that all parties that been asked to support this important venture understand the value of the creation of an entity that will advance generic diamond promotion and advertising projects in the global diamond jewellery consumer markets.

During the Congress, WFDB inducted the South Korean Diamond Exchange as the 29th WFDB member, and also resolved to accept representatives of governments of diamond producing countries as "nation-affiliated members" for the very first time. These non-affiliated members will be eligible to participate in World Diamond Congresses and Presidents' Meetings, and to receive benefits accruing from their membership.

It was also decided to conduct the 2011 Presidents' Meeting in Dubai, and hosted by the Dubai Diamond Exchange. Mumbai is finalized as the venue of the 35th World Diamond Congress in 2012, to be hosted by Bharat Diamond Bourse.

IDMA on its part also expressed appreciation for the invitation extended by the Botswana government and the diamond industry there to IDMA to host its 2011 Presidents' Meeting there.

The WFDB re-elected Avi Paz as president (for a second consecutive term), Ernest Blom as Vice President, Michael Vaughan as Secretary-General, and Dieter Hahn as Treasurer-General. Also, Rony Unterman was elected Deputy Secretary-General and Freddy Hager as Treasurer-General. Six representatives - Julien Drybooms, Freddy Hager, Nikhil Jhaveri, Anoop Mehta, Moshe Mosbacher and Sergey Oulin, were elected for two-year term to Board of Directors.

The IDMA members re-elected Moti Ganz as president, Ronnie VanderLinden as secretary-general, and Stephane Fischler as treasurer. Eduard Denckens, Ronald Friedman, Vasant Mehta and Maxim Shkadov were all elected to serve as vice presidents. Ben Kinzler, general counsel of the Diamond Manufacturers & Importers Association of America (DMIA), was appointed as (IDMA) Legal Counsel.

The WFDB also decided to conduct the 2011 Presidents' Meeting in Dubai, and hosted by the Dubai Diamond Exchange.

BDB to Host Next Congress in Mumbai The Bharat Diamond Bourse will be the host of the 35th World Diamond Congress which will be held in Mumbai in 2012.

This is the first time that India will be playing host to this prestigious gathering of the Who’s Who of the world diamond industry. Earlier Mumbai played host to the WFDB-IDMA Presidents’ Meeting in 2005.