The annual WDC conference took place last week in Jerusalem. At the opening cocktail event WDC Chairman Eli Izhakoff said that although the industry had faced a challenging year, it had come out of it very well, but that the industry still has work to do.

 

The theme of unfinished work ran through the conference as a veritable "Who’s Who" of the diamond industry gathered to hear about the events of the previous year and to discuss the future.

 

The conference kicked off with a speech by Israel’s Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Trade and Industry, Eli Ishai, who said, “I would like to note that the State of Israel is one of the leaders in the world is maintaining the ethical guidelines in the world against conflict diamonds.”

 

In his address, Izhakoff reported that the WDC has accomplished much of what it set out to achieve when it met last year. He especially noted the challenge of the Blood Diamond and the increased awareness of the conflict diamond issue. “We must,” he said “accept that it is not wholly unreasonable for some to have asked if the industry could not have acted sooner.” 

 

He also told the assembly that, "We must not, however, rest on our laurels. We will face many more challenges in the future and we must prepare ourselves."

 

Gareth Penny, managing director of De Beers, gave the keynote address, "Living up to diamonds," discussing ethics (money laundering and child labor), communities (artisanal and alluvial miners) and the environment (ecosystem destruction and pollution). "In spite of recent successes," he said, “the conflict diamonds issue, for example, has not left us and it would be complacent and dangerous for anyone to believe it has.”

 

Penny also spent some time discussing the future of the organization. It cannot be "a patchwork quilt of well-meaning intentions and ideas…The WDC must be truly representative of the industry and the people and the countries in which we conduct business. It must be transparent and accountable."

 

Penny commented on the future structure of the WDC saying, "A greater degree of professionalism must be introduced to enhance and support its leadership. We should not be afraid of innovation and, for example, (…) enabling NGO representation at advisory board level."

 

He also invited other companies to help in the financing of the WDC.

 

Following Penny Sergey Vibornov, president of Alrosa, announced that the company is set to go public. He also commented that In light of the EU ban on rough diamond trade between the Russian miner and De Beers, Alrosa is looking forward to "developing cooperation with De Beers in the area of mining, geological prospecting, and improving mining and processing technologies."

 

The newly appointed president caused a minor stir by telling the gathering that they had to determine the real efficiency of the Kimberley Process.

 

Although he did not argue with the percentage of goods that can be considered conflict diamonds, he did call into question the calculations used to arrive at this figure. "Generally speaking, it should be admitted that the Kimberly Process is currently far from being perfect both in terms of methodology and implementation. To a certain extent, today’s report about Kimberly Process progress creates an illusion of market wholesomeness, which is a misleading illusion, real transparency is still far to reach."

 

Gaetano Cavalieri, president of CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation told the assembly, "What we want is for individual jewelers—large and small—to be able to open their doors each day, and go about their jobs, secure in the knowledge that the products they sell meet the consumers’ justifiably high standards."

 

Other speakers included Cecilia Gardner, general counsel WDC; Matt Runci, president and CEO of Jewelers of America and chairman of CRJP; Michael Rae CEO of CRJP; Mark Van Bockstael, chairman of the WDC Technical Committee; Ernie Blom, president of the WFDB; Jeffrey Fischer, President of IDMA; Alex Yearsley, head of special projects for Global Witness; Christine Berger of the EU; Stephane Chardon, chairman of the KP Monitoring Committee of the EU; and Sue Saarnio, of the U.S. Department of State.

 

The gala dinner that concluded the conference, was addressed by former Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. During the course of his remarks, Netanyahu said that Israel has the ability to compete with Dubai to attain the leadership of the world diamond industry. In order to achieve this, he called for tax cuts and the easing of regulations on the industry.

 

The 2008 conference will take place in Belgium.