Gems

Kolkata, Apr 21 (UNI) Despite continuous fluctuations in international pricing of gold, the export of gems and jewellery from Eastern India grew by a record 21 per cent last year amounting to Rs 921 crores.

Disclosing this to mediapersons here today Gems and Jewellery Export Promotion Council Convener Pankaj Parekh said since the introduction of the Special Economic Zone for gems and jewellery 'Manikanchan' in the city in November 2004, the export of precious items from this region had recorded a quantum jump though only 21 major units had set up their shops in the SEZ so far.

With more leading jewellery manufacturers of the country expressing keen interest in establiashing their units at Manikanchan, the amount of export from this part of the country was poised to go up manifold in the coming years, Mr Parekh said.

Referring to his plan to give further boost to the gems and jewellery businesses in Eastern India, Mr Parekh said keeping in view the huge growth potential the Council in association with the Union Commerce ministry had decided to start a state of the art Jewllery design and manufacturing course in the city later this year besides setting up two gem stone identifying centres in Orissa and Mizoram.

Further elaborating, he said the Council the had already received a grant of Rs 2.4 million from the Commerce ministry besides around 1500 square metres of office space at Manikanchan for starting the training institute at the earliest.

To start with three months courses on 'Modeling and Casting' and on 'Computer Aided Designing'(CAD)would start for 20 odd students in the first batch,the GJC Convener said.

About the gems identification centres, Mr Parekh said while the Buhbaneswar based unit had already start functioning with different types of stones collected from various mines in Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa being examined and separated for their use in the indutry, another would be set up on the outskirts of Aizwl within the next few months to meet the demand from the Northeast and the neighbouring Myanmar.

Mr Parekh, who also announced the commencing of the mega India International Jewellery Show (IIJS)in Mumbai from May four to eight as the second largest exhibitions of precious metals in Asia after Hong Kong, said more than 30,000 participants from India and 30 other countries across the globe would take part in the five day extravaganza.

He said while business worth more than 15 million dollars were generated in last year's fair, this year they expected the amount would cross the 25 million dollar mark with business delegates from the USA,Germany,France, Brazil, Panama, Mexico, Japan, South Africa, Thailand, Saudi Arabia and the whole of Middle East coming in large numbers.

About the sudden slump in export of Indian gems and jewellery items in the USA leading to a lower growth in overall export figure last year to only about 12 billiob dollars,Mr Parekh hoped that the situation would considerably improve this year with increased number of American buyers coming back with more orders.

On the previous year the overall Indian export of gems and jewellery was to the tune of about 16 billion dollars to become the second largest contributor in the country's foreign exchage earnings, Mr Prekh informed replying to another query.

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