Mumbai: Delegations of the GJEPC and De Beers exchanged views on key industry issues at a meeting held in the GJEPC premises yesterday. The De Beers team was led by Group CEO Phillipe Mellier, while the GJEPC team included Chairman Vipul Shah, Vice Chairman Pankaj Parekh and other senior members of the trade.

The GJEPC presented its perspective of the current market scenario, pointing out that the market had been slow over the last few months and both profitablity and production in the manufacturing sector have been affected. In this context, the GJEPC team presented its view that there was an urgent need to launch generic promotions of diamonds to boost demand.

The presentation also drew attention to issues related to bank finance and synthetic diamonds and outlined certain projects that the Council had initiated in these areas such as the setting up of the Natural Diamond Monitoring Committee and the MYKYC project which proposes a centralized KYC network for the global industry which is compliant with FATF.

The Council proposed some key areas where the two bodies could cooperate with a view to boosting profitability. These include joining hands with other bodies to conduct generic promotions and boost demand and prices for polished; interaction with financial institutions to instill confidence and ensure adequate finances; equip trade associations across the value chain with machines like the AMS for detection of undisclosed mixing and work towards creating a separate HS Code for synthetic diamonds.

GJEPC Chairman Vipul Shah said that the meeting saw meaningful interaction and that De Beers had said it welcomed the proposals made by the Council and was open to further discussions after studying them in detail.