Ernie Blom shares talks with industry leaders at Eastern Economic Forum

World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) President Ernie Blom joined leading diamond and jewelry industry leaders in an industry-specific session of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) discussing New Development Drivers of Global Diamond Business in Asia Pacific. Among other industry participants were Ari Epstein, CEO of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre, Vipul Shah, Chairman of the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC), Andrey Zharkov, President of Alrosa, Dilip Mehta, CEO of Rosy Blue, and Alex Popov, the World Diamond Mark Foundation.

The event was opened by Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin and organized by Alrosa, a general partner of the event. One of the aims of the seminar was to boost business in the Far East of Russia.

During the session discussions centered around the current condition and prospects for further developing the global diamond market, the potential of new jewelry consumer markets, including Russia, measures to stimulate consumer demand and how to promote demand for polished diamonds.

"We discussed the reasons for the global diamond and jewelry market slowdown and the impact of macroeconomic factors, the problems of industry financing, manufacturing business profitability and how to generate demand for diamond jewelry," said Blom. “Although these are major issues for which we have been battling to find solutions for some time, it was important to listen to the views of people from across the diamond pipeline and debate the themes."

Alex Popov presented the viewpoint of the World Diamond Mark (WDM) and updated the session participants on the work of the WDM in creating generic diamond promotional events and enabling retailers to improve their service, and sales, to diamond jewelry consumers.