Recently, Yoram Dvash, WFDB President shared his thought and said, Unity is the Need of the Hour! Last week, on June 10 and 11, we held a very successful Presidents’ Meeting in New York, hosted by the Diamond Dealers Club of New York, led by President Elliot Krischer, with illustrious speakers such as Botswana President Duma Boko, Botswana Minister of Minerals and Energy Bogolo Kenewendo, Minister of Mineral Resources, Petroleum, and Gas Diamantino Azevedo, De Beers CEO Al Cook, De Beers EVP Paul Rowley, Kimberley Process Chairman Ahmed Bin Sulayem, WDC President Feriel Zerouki, JVC President Sara Yood, CIBJO President Gaetano Cavalieri, IDMA President Ronnie Vanderlinden and GIA’s Tom Moses, among others.
The meeting was attended by presidents and directors of diamond bourses from all over the world, as well as by leaders of the most important industry organizations. The responses we received from participants were universally positive, with emphasis on the level of speakers, the quality of the panels and the feeling of community that was felt throughout the event.
I would like to stress several lessons I learned during the meeting. Firstly, we are seeing the mobilization of many of the diamond producing countries to financially contribute to promoting natural diamonds. This is in addition to the international organizations like the WFDB and others – De Beers, the Natural Diamond Council, AWDC – who are operating campaigns to promote the natural diamond.
Secondly, several countries declared at the meeting that they want to join the WFDB, the umbrella organization of all bourses around the world. Botswana and Angola declared publicly in their speeches that they want to join the WFDB, and we met with representatives of Qatar at the meeting who also expressed their desire to join the WFDB.
Thirdly, we heard clearly that there is a longing for unity and cooperation among all organizations and countries. Everyone understands that the situation is critical, and unity is the necessity of the hour.
As I said in my opening address, despite the grave challenges we face, we can see this as an opportunity. “We can unite our forces and strengthen confidence in our industry. This is an opportunity to build an ethical, transparent and strong industry—one that can withstand even the most dangerous winds. Together, we will continue to lead; together, we will remind the world why a natural diamond will always be forever. We are not just preserving the industry—we are building its future.”
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