The following is a press release from the WFDB about the Asian Summit which I attended recently.

A very successful Asian Summit was hosted 3-4 March by the Tokyo Diamond Exchange Inc in Tokyo where delegates were welcomed by Ernie Blom, WFDB president, and Michio Iwasaki, president of the Tokyo Diamond Exchange. The summit was attended by industry members from the Asian region including Mr Suresh Hathiramani, president of the Diamond Exchange of Singapore A number of key international players such as Avi Paz and Shmuel Schnitzer from the WFDB, Alex Popov, president of the Moscow Diamond Bourse, Rami Baron, president of the Diamond Dealers Club of Australia, and Tom Moses, vicepresident of the GIA also attended the 2013 Asian Summit.

During the gathering, the Tokyo Diamond Exchange Club provided fundamental information on the Japanese market. From 2010 to the end of 2012 the value of Japan’s import of polished diamonds increased by 30% from US$692 million to US$900 million. Whilst the figures are very impressive Japan has not yet reached the figures it was producing in 1992. The value of the jewellery market in Japan is US$11.4 billion and diamond jewellery make up 48.2% of this figure. Yano research has found that the rebound from the great earthquake and tsunami has helped the retail sales and the consumption of jewellery amongst the wealthy has further assisted growth. The future of the jewellery industry in Japan looks good and it is expected to grow by 2.9% year-on-year in 2013 to ¥937.4 billion and 4.8% year-on-year in 2014 to ¥982 billion.

The Bangkok Diamond and Precious Stones Exchange reported on the single market formation of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Loas, Malaysia, Myanmar, The Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam to
create a market with 584 million people and a combined GDP of US$2 trillion. This grouping known as ASEAN grew its GDP by 4.7% in 2011, a faster rate than most other regions in the world. The strategic position Thailand occupies in this grouping perfectly positions the country for trade with China, India and other AEC members. Thailand’s GDP growth in 2013 is projected at 5-6%. Diamond jewellery currently represents 10.98% of the total jewellery market of US$13,147 million.

During his presentation on the new Bharat Diamond Bourse, Anoop Metha illustrated why this facility is one of the biggest diamond centres in the world. The bourse is spread over 20 Acres/0.87 million sq feet with parking facilities for 2 000 vehicles. The building houses 2 500 diamond offices and eight banks. This facility provides state of the art accommodation for the diamond industry in Mumbai and within the complex it caters to all the needs of the diamond fraternity (transport, safes, customs, etc). The diamond import data for the 2011/2 and 2012/3 period shows an increase of 27.3% in rough diamonds and a decrease of 13.7% in cut and polished diamonds. The export data for the same period shows an increase in rough diamonds of 73.45% and a decline in cut and polished diamonds of 6.55%.