Initiating stronger ties between each other, The Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) and the Diamond Administration of China (DAC) have signed a MoU on November 28 during the 2007 China International Diamond Conference in Shanghai. The agreenment was signed between Freddy J. Hanard, CEO of AWDC and Liu JinPing, Chairman of the DAC and Vice Chairman of the Shanghai Foreign Economic Relations & Trade Commission in the presence of Madame Ma Xiuhong, Vice Minister at the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China, and Vincent Van Quickenborne, State Secretary of Belgium.

Hanard clarified that “The aim of the MOU is to strengthen cooperation and exchange between the two diamond sectors. The agreement covers a number of areas, but all essentially stem from a shared recognition that in the modern diamond business the interests of all sides are served by a free flow of information, ideas, diamonds, capital and people” .

The agreement outlined mutual coopertaion in the areas of exchange of information and market behaviours, educational programmes in China and Belgium, museum exhibitions, and marketing initiatives to increase sale of diamonds and diamond jewellery.