Dubai Diamond Exchange to Open Diamond Control Office
July 10, 13
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The Diamond Control Office is to open under the authority of the Dubai Multi Commodities Centre (DMCC) by the end of this year in a move seen as helping the emirate take a big step to attracting further financing for its diamond industry.
The office at the DMCC’s Dubai Diamond Exchange will allow for a more thorough valuation of the precious stones moving through the emirate, and win the confidence of major financial institutions as Dubai aims for a bigger share of the global diamond trade as it moves east.
“We are basically going to establish a special diamond control office for polished diamonds - which will mean that in the future that all polished diamonds will have one point of entry,” said Dubai Diamond Exchange Chairman Peter Meeus.
A similar system already exists to monitor the trade in rough diamonds through the UAE in the form of the country’s Kimberley Process office which implements a global certification scheme that seeks to prevent the trade of conflict diamonds.
The addition of a new process certifying the trade of polished stones promises to insert Dubai into global diamond trade twice, channeling rough diamonds for cutting and polishing in China and India and then moving the polished gems to markets around the world.
“We are basically going to the next stage in Dubai with regards to the development of our diamond business,” Meeus explained. “Because if millions of diamonds, big and small, are coming you need a dedicated office that can value them properly. And on the basis of that valuation, banks actually extend credit.”
The opening of the new office before the end of the year will mean the “proper valuation of what comes in and what goes out”, he added. The emirate’s increasing capabilities come at a time of a “huge shift” in the global diamond trade. The Diamond Trading Company is transferring its operations to Botswana from London in a move that is likely to “huge" consequences for Dubai, Meeus said.