Foreign Guests Officially Open US & International Diamond Week

(IDEX Online News) – With considerably more than 1,000 people in attendance, the second US & International Diamond Week was officially opened by an international panel of guests from the global diamond and jewelry industry at the Israel Diamond Exchange (IDE) today (Monday).

Guest of honor at the opening ceremony was Conroy Heng Chi Heng, of the Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group, while Lawrence Ma, president of the Hong Kong Diamond Exchange, also took part, along IDE President Yair Sahar, DDC NY President Reuven Kaufman, CIBJO President Gaetano Cavalieri and Italian jewelry designer Roberto Coin.

More than 500 foreign diamond buyers from 22 countries registered to take part, with large delegations from the United States, India, China, including Hong Kong, Italy and, Russia, along with Belgium, Great Britain, Turkey, Canada, Australia, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Uzbekistan, Brazil and Taiwan.

IDE President Yair Sahar told the audience that he and Kaufman could have had no idea of the scale of the response to the idea of an international buyers' week when they began formulating it a year ago. Meanwhile, the second Israel Diamond Week is slated to take place at the Diamond Dealer Club in New York in November.

"Look around you, this is an extraordinary sight. We had no idea the response would be so overwhelming," Sahar said. "Embrace the foreign visitors and good luck with your business."

Meanwhile, Kaufman said that there was nowhere that he would prefer to be at the end of the Jewish year than in Israel and nowhere that he would prefer to be at the start of a new year than at the Israel Diamond Exchange. "This is a great example of inter-bourse cooperation. The more we work together, the more we will succeed."

IDE General Manager Moti Besser welcomed the IDE's guests from Hong Kong and China, saying that the region accounted for one-third of Israel's polished exports.