IDE President shares views at opening speech of Presidents’ Meeting

At the opening session of the Presidents’ Meeting, Israel Diamond Exchange President, Shmuel Schnitzer, spoke of the importance of solving the current hurdles which have a macro impact on the global diamond industry, by citing a micro view of what is currently being faced by the Israel diamond industry.

He touched upon three key topics – profitability, finance and transparency and the price list. Profitability, according to him, ‘is a difficult, painful problem that runs like a thread through all the diamond centers in the world. We have to sound the alert. We must find a solution to the industry's problem of profitability.’ Obtaining finance was one key subject he touched upon. He mentioned that ‘as a result of the changing regulations, including Basel II and III, and as a result of the AML laws, which are making very strict order in the economy, the global banking industry has changed its attitude to the diamond industry. This change is making it hard for diamantaires to obtain credit, regardless of their economic and business situation. We are certain that this attitude is totally unjustified. Our industry is becoming increasingly transparent by the day. So the opposite is true - I think that the time has definitely come for more banks and non-banking financial institutions to join in financing the diamond industry’.

According to Schnitzer ‘Transparency is closely associated with the issue of finance. In Israel, we are doing our utmost to create a center that operates with full transparency. It seems that soon we will sign a comprehensive arrangement with the tax authorities, which will lead to the right solution.’ He expressed looking forward to discussing the view points on the price list as the Meeting progressed. He also mentioned that the current issue of GIA Israel involving the suspicion of temporary color treatment is currently awaiting the results of the investigation in Israel and the US. He closed his talk inviting all participants to the International Diamond Week slated from August 30th to September 3rd, 2015.