Gem and jewellery centre for World Trade Centre

To develop supply, demand and capacity building:

Sanjeevi Jayasuriya

The National Gem and Jewellery Authority plans to set up a fully-fledged gem and jewellery centre to be housed at the World Trade Centre tower soon. The gem and jewellery industry will become a one-stop-shop facility with this gem centre along with industry related services under one roof.

The centre will be a fully owned subsidiary of the National Gem and Jewellery Authority and managed under a public-private partnership.

The gem city is an absolute necessity in the trade and would also be a tourist attraction. The gem and jewellery industry will have an integrated system with tourist industry to position Sri Lanka in the field of gem tourism, National Gem and Jewellery Authority Chairman Anil Koswatte told Daily News Business.

Jewellery value addition needs to be re-looked and re-engineered to capture markets. A strategy to sustain the existing markets is vital for the country to be positioned as a gem hub.

A three-pronged strategy to develop supply, demand and capacity building will be introduced shortly.

Sri Lanka will have an aggressive plan as in Thailand to brand the country under the theme 100 gem stones, 1,000 designs and million buyers. A research and development unit will be set up with the assistance of the Government to promote the industry.

The overall global gem markets are recovering especially in the US and a better year could be expected in 2010.

The industry faced a major setback due to the global recession where a low performance was recorded last year. “However, there is a reduction in the negative growth and we could come on par with 2008 performance by August,” Koswatte said. “The country is rich with gem mining land where 90 percent is potential gem bearing land. It needs to increase the buyer base with an attention-grabbing slogan taking a cue from Thailand, which has created a benchmark in the global industry.”

Sri Lanka possesses worldwide-accepted cutting and designing technology. This attracts many international buyers to the country and measures are needed to provide these facilities by enhancing research and development activities.

Further liberalization of the industry is needed with a transparent policy. The country should encourage rough materials into Sri Lanka from countries such as Tanzania, Rwanda, Madagascar, Pakistan and Myanmar.

It will make the country as the gem and jewellery trading route. Action will be taken to improve the supply chain with miners and buyers, Koswatte said.