The Dominican Republic is set to host the Panama Diamond Exchange's (PDE) first Caribbean roadshow. This is the 6th PDE roadshow overall, and will visit the capital city, Santa Domingo, from September 7 to 9. This roadshow will be the first to a key economy in the Caribbean Basin, which is an area that is home to an increasingly important domestic market and is also a region that brings in millions of tourists each year by air and by sea.

The visit is part of the World Jewelry Hub's two-pronged outreach program in Latin America, which includes periodic diamond and jewelry weeks that bring buyers to the World Jewelry Hub in Panama City, as well roadshows taking PDE members directly into the region's most important jewelry markets. Previous roadshows have visited Lima, Peru; Bogotá, Colombia; Guayaquil, Ecuador; Santiago, Chile; and São Paulo, Brazil.

The Dominican Republic roadshow is being led by Judy Meana, Vice President of the Panama Diamond Exchange, and Ali Pastorini, Director of Marketing of the World Jewelry Hub and the personal representative of the WJH Chairman, Eli Izhakoff.

At a B2B networking event on September 8, Ms. Meana will make a presentation on the World Jewelry Hub and its development program. It would be an opportunity for delegation members and key jewelers from the Dominican Republic to meet and schedule one-on-one meetings. "The Dominican Republic is a lynchpin in a region that critical in Latin America," explained Ms. Meana. "It not only is the gateway to the Caribbean, but also a lucrative jewelry market serving million of tourists from the United States and around the world. We consider this to be a most important stop in PDE's outreach program."

The Dominican Republic is a jewelry exporter in its own right, serving as a production center for many U.S. jewelry companies. It also is Latin America's sixth largest gold producer and the 20th largest globally, with an estimated 40 million ounces of gold reserves. It additionally is a rich source of amber, and is the world's only known producer of Larimar, a rare gemstone that also is known as Atlantis Stone, which has an extraordinary blue color similar to that of the tropical sea.