Italian Jewelers Seek Stronger UAE Ties
March 28, 04
A group of senior members of the Vicenza jewelry trade has held talks with the Gold and Jewelry Group in Dubai aimed at strengthening trade ties between the two major jewelry centers.
The talks are the latest in a series the Italian jewelry trade is holding as it looks to increase sales following a 22 percent fall in sales last year. Sales of Italian jewelry are around four billion euros per year.
The UAE is the Italian jewelry industry’s second-largest consumer after the United States. At the center of the discussions was the possibility of developing Dubai as a major overseas manufacturing area for Italian jewelry and as a retail market for Italian designs.
The Italian delegation sees Dubai as a launch pad for expanding the Italian jewelry business worldwide due to its skilled workforce, open business environment and government aided state-of-the-art infrastructure that supports the entire jewelry industry.
A group of representatives from the UAE’s Gold and Jewelry Group is due to visit Vicenza for talks with major manufacturers to look into the relocating and expansion of their operations to Dubai. Currently, much of the foreign manufacture of Italian jewelry takes place in the Far East.