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DDE announces keynote speakers & panel discussion themes for Dubai Diamond Conference in October

26 september 2017
The Dubai Diamond Exchange (DDE) - a DMCC (Dubai Multi Commodities Centre) platform - has announced the keynote speakers and subjects to be discussed at the third edition of its biennial two-day Dubai Diamond Conference 2017 (DDC) under the theme 'Destination Next – Shaping the future of an interconnected marketplace’.
The conference will be held on October 16-17; it brings together international leaders of the diamond industry.
DMCC’s Executive Chairman, Ahmed Bin Sulayem will open the conference and welcome top-level speakers and panelists from every sector of the diamond pipeline across the world.
Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, Chairman, Global Compact Foundation, will speak at the opening ceremony about United Nations Global Compact which encourages businesses to adopt sustainable and socially responsible policies and to report on their implementation.
Day One of the event will be devoted to the importance of the sustainability agenda and will feature a number of top level speakers from the industry: Sir Mark Moody-Stuart; World Federation of Diamond Bourses President Ernie Blom; Responsible Jewellery Council Executive Director Andrew Bone; De Beers Group Head of Government and Industry Relations Feriel Zerouki; CIBJO, The World Jewellery Confederation President, Dr. Gaetano Cavalieri; Gem and Jewellery Export Promotion Council Chairman Praveenshankar Pandya; and Signet Jewelers Ltd. Vice-President, Corporate Affairs, David Bouffard.
Ernie Blom will give the diamond industry's perspective on responsible mining, manufacturing and sourcing of goods, while Andrew Bone will give input from the perspective of the Responsible Jewellery Council which has more than 1,000 members from the mining to the retailing sectors.
Feriel Zerouki, representing De Beers Group, will provide details of the mining giant's work, and Dr. Cavalieri is to speak about CIBJO's work on the promotion of United Nations sustainable development goals.
The Panel discussions on Day 2 will focus on the following topics: Lab-grown diamonds and their disclosure, bankability, transparency, innovation, KP reform, the impact of value added tax (VAT) or GST on wholesale diamond trading, as well as tenders and auctions.

Aruna Gaitonde, Editor-in-Chief of Asian Bureau, Rough & Polished