KP Chair meets with Indian Minister of State for Commerce and Industry

KP Chair Mr. Bin Sulayem interacted with Indian Minister of State for Commerce and Industry- Mrs Nirmala Seetharaman, elucidating efforts taken by him during the last nine months. These include facilitating Venezuela’s return to the KP, securing green zones for Central African Republic to re-export and discussing his Africa Initiatives.

Mr. Bin Sulayem also summarised the outcomes of the two Rough Diamond Valuation Forums, the second held last week in Antwerp, Belgium in association with the AWDC. Talks centered on methodology for a standardized approach to creating a process to price rough diamonds effectively through to deliberating on the challenges the industry faces from synthetics and the upcoming KP Plenary in mid-November in Dubai.

During the meeting with Mrs Nirmala Seetharaman, he commented on the Indian Commodity Exchange’s decision to allow for futures trading in polished diamonds.

India is one of the world's largest diamond and gem polishing and jewellery manufacturing centres with over 80 percent of the world’s rough diamonds being processed in the country. Also, its gems and jewellery sector contributes to around 6 to 7 per cent of the country’s GDP. India exports 95 per cent of the world’s diamonds, according to statistics from the Gems & Jewellery Export promotion Council (GJEPC).