WFDB cancels membership request of Diamond Bourse of South Korea

The Executive Committee of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) stated that it had to cancel the present request by the Diamond Bourse of South Korea (DBK) for WFDB membership, due to lack of payment of the entrance fee.

The DBK request to become the WFDB's 29th member was discussed and approved in principle at the 34th World Diamond Congress that was held in Moscow, Russia, in 2010, based on the precondition that DBK fulfills the Articles of Association of the WFDB, in particular, making full payment of the entrance fee.

WFDB President Avi Paz stated, “We have time and again asked the DBK to make payment, but our calls went unanswered. Full payment of the entrance fee to the WFDB is a pre-condition for membership of a candidate bourse to take effect. The DBK never took that last step, and therefore, the request for membership has been denied."

According to Paz, the decision to deny membership was taken at a meeting of the WFDB's governing body in November 2011 in Antwerp. In a letter to the Korean bourse, Paz said that the failure of the Korean bourse to pay the entrance fee constituted a "fundamental violation of the WFDB's undertakings" and that the WFDB therefore had no choice but "to cancel the request of the Diamond Bourse of South Korea for membership and to put the issue on the agenda of the next Congress."