OREANDA-NEWS. June 19, 2015. President of ALROSA, Andrey Zharkov, attended the 2015 Presidents' Meeting of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB) and the International Diamond Manufacturers Association (IDMA) held in Israel.

The summit discussed current environment and outlook of the global diamond market. Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, hosted a delegation in the 2015 Presidents' Meeting and held a session with the participants.

Speaking at the meeting, Andrey Zharkov focused on the need for joint effort to stimulate consumer demand for diamonds, including through promoting diamond as an emotional symbol.

“The diamond trading centres play an important role in the development of our market. ALROSA will continue to foster close relations with diamond centres and industry organisations to contribute to the sector development, information exchange and consumer confidence”, said Andrey Zharkov.

ALROSA also held a top-level meeting with the Israel Diamond Exchange (IDE) to discuss the implementation of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by the Company and the IDE in February 2015. The document envisages information exchange on the identification and classification of diamonds, sorting and cutting technologies, identification of treated diamonds.

Israel is one of the key players in the global diamond market. In 2014, Israeli companies purchased ALROSA’s rough diamonds for a total of over USD 550 mln.

The WFDB and IDMA Presidents' Meetings are traditionally held every other year to discuss major industry topics. The management of 30 diamond exchanges, 16 national members of IDMA, representatives of diamond majors, governmental and nongovernmental organisations take part in the meeting.