Surat: Southern Gujarat Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SGCCI) has mobilized its resources to ensure that the state government-sponsored Sparkle-2017, a gems and jewellery event, is held successfully here.

Amid fear of getting less number of exhibitors, which was less than 50 until last week, the SGCCI’s gems and jewellery committee managed to get 105 exhibitors from Surat, Ahmedabad, Mumbai, Jaipur, Valsad, Khambhat and Rajkot for the Sparkle-2017 to be held at Surat International Exhibition and Convention Centre (SIECC) at Sarsana.

The gems and jewellery event, which will run from January 19 to 22, will be inaugurated by deputy chief minister Nitin Patel. The exhibition is spread in 1,000 square meter area with the latest attraction being the 22-foot replica of Shivlingam of Somnath Temple, which is studded with 75,000 diamonds and coated with gold.

SGCCI president BS Agarwal said, “Demonetization has literally affected the Sparkle event, but we have managed to get comfortable presence of the exhibitors. We had to cancel the entire B2B event where around 35 exhibitors had confirmed their participation before demonetization in November last year. We have invited around 22 guests from Kenya and a Dubai-based jewellery company will be doing branding at the show.”

Agarwal said a series of seminars will be organized on January 19, January 20 and January 21 by Gemological Institute of America (GIA) on diamond jewellery sector. Also, a fashion show will be organized to display the latest jewellery designs in the country.

Nainesh Patchigar, chairman of SGCCI’s gems and jewellery committee, said, “Before demonetization, we had crossed the bookings from the exhibitors for 1,800 square meter space at SIECC. Post demonetization, we got many cancellation requests. Now, the exhibition will be held in 1,000 square meter area.”