WDC to host 6th Annual meeting

The World Diamond Council has outlined the theme for its Sixth Annual Meeting as "Celebrating Five Years into the Kimberley Process." The meeting will be held in Antwerp on June 30. It celebrates the purpose of the World Diamond Council as well - coordinating the diamond and jewellery industry's campaign against conflict diamonds. The two-day event is being hosted by the Antwerp World Diamond Centre.

Keynote speakers at the Kimberly Process plenary session of July 1st will attend an Executive Committee scheduled on June 30 with - Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme; Eli Izhakoff,Chairman and CEO of the World Diamond Council; Steve Merdinger, Independent Auditor/CPA, followed by Avi Paz, president of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB); Moti Ganz, president of the International Diamond Manufacturers Association; Gaetano Cavalieri, president of CIBJO; and Ernest Blom, vice president of the WFDB, participating.

Karel Kovanda, the chairman of the Kimberley Process Chairman in 2007 is to open the afternoon session, followed by Cecilia Gardner, general counsel, who will speak about the WDC Reforms and Activities in the Kimberley Process. The Kimberley Process Technical Report will be detailed by Mark Van Bockstael, chairman of the KP Technical committee and CO International Affairs of Antwerp World Diamond Centre.

NGOs will be represented by Alex Yearsley, a campaigner for Global Witness, from the European Union, Christian Berger and Stephane Chardon, KP chairman, who will present the Government Representatives Reports, Dorothee Gizenga, executive director of the Diamond Development Initiative, who will provide an update on the organisation's activities. WDC is to host come 200 guests at the closing gala dinner, where the guests of honour will be Gareth Penny, De Beers' managing director and Belgium's Minister of Foreign Affairs Karel de Gucht will be invited.