Exploring Alternative Options For an Engagement Ring
found May 24, 2010 at newyorknewsbreak.com
For many couples considering engagement, to buy a diamond ring is the preferred choice for a ring. It was the preferred choice for Archduke Maximilian of Austria who presented a diamond ring to Mary of Burgandy in 1477, and the diamond wedding ring was first introduced. But there are some who prefer something different or unique. Fortunately, there are a range of choices for those who would like to break with tradition and choose something other than a diamond engagement ring.
The most important aspect for choosing a ring is the symbolism it represents. Rings have long represented a bond between two people. Its shape symbolizes the love and commitment meant to last a lifetime. Rings worn on the left ring finger are associated with the direct connection to the heart, which is why it has become the traditional finger for wedding rings. However, a ring doesn’t necessarily have to be a diamond to represent those sentiments. Take for instance the Royal Family. Sapphire engagement rings were chosen for the Queen Mother, Queen Elizabeth, Princess Anne and Princess Diana. Meanwhile, Princess Sarah Ferguson received a ruby. What means most to a young woman receiving a ring is the thoughtfulness and caring behind it. A ring should represent the appropriate symbolism for a particular couple.
There are many colored gemstones, for example, that have historical associations to love. Red, the warmest color, has long been associated with love. Red symbolizes vitality and confidence – the heart and passion. Red reflects courage and ability to take action without fear of reprisal – a truly good choice for a man who is confident of his lover’s response. The ruby is a red member of the corundum family of minerals. Corundum of any color – blue, pink, yellow – is called a sapphire. Rubies may have a purplish undertone and are rated at 9 on the Moh’s scale. Diamonds are rated at 10 while turquoise is only a 5 or 6.
Who could forget the spectacular engagement ring that Princess Diana chose for herself? The oval blue sapphire weighed an astounding 18 carats surrounded by 14 small diamonds. It was purchased for the hefty price of $65,000. At the time, the rich blue sapphire became an elegant symbol of the couple’s commitment. Blue gemstones, symbolizing spirituality and purity, are also available at less expensive prices in the form of blue spinel, iolite and blue tourmaline.
Symbolizing faithfulness and continuity, green gemstones include not only the emerald, but green garnet or green tourmaline. The emerald is the most valuable type of beryl mineral. Ancients prized it as the symbol of love, rebirth and eternal youth. Some believe that emeralds have healing powers.
A classic alternative, pearl engagement rings represent a timeless choice for couples. When most people think of pearls, they think of a creamy white, luminescent coloring. However, pearls come in a variety of colors, including gold, cream, black, blue, pink and green. Many pearls actually have a main color with a second shade as an overtone or highlight. A white body with pink hues is one of the most expensive and popular pearl colors. It is not unusual to see a natural pearl in an antique or heirloom piece.
The woman who strives to express her own distinctive personality may be a good candidate for an optional engagement ring discussed here.
This type of woman is also one who appreciates the language of jewelry. One of the guiding principles for wearing jewelry is choosing pieces that convey the unique personality of the wearer. Pandora Jewelry’s charm bracelets and complementing jewelry capture the imagination of women who want to create their own style. Each item in the Pandora collection is a handmade Danish design in 14K gold and sterling silver. With more than 600 beads, charms and semiprecious stones from which to choose, no Pandora bracelet is like another. The bracelet’s design allows the wearer to interchange the charms to create a totally unique look. Beads can also be added to necklaces, rings and earrings to make a complete set.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
buy diamond ring
Buy Diamond ring .
Why diamonds don’t cut it any more
Carey Hunt wrote:
I suppose if someone got down on one knee and presented their partner with a wad of cash of equivalent value,it would take some of the romance out of the situation,and might leave the lucky lady thinking that she was being treated like a prostitute.In terms of an investment,someone getting married in 1980 say would have been better presenting their partner with some barrels of oil rather than a diamond (10 fold increase vs 2.5 fold).
May 24, 2010 6:47 AM BST on community.timesonline.co.uk
John Doe wrote:
A nicely written article.Shame the Times will be disappearing behind a pay wall soon.
May 24, 2010 5:54 AM BST on community.timesonline.co.uk
Mary Poppins wrote:
Dear Helen, you say 'a cheap and common stone'. Maybe the flawed and very flawed are cheap and common but the less flawed, I think anyway, are not so.'[A stone] whose entire modern tradition was invented by an expensive marketing campaign in the mid-20th century?'Surely it wasn't because when chosen and cut right that they are absolutely beautiful? There's nothing quite as sparkly or beautiful.What about other modern marketing campaigns meant to pull money from our pockets for disposable items that degrade over time and lose value the second you buy them: designer clothes and bags, cars, ever more complicated additions to our homes. At least diamonds don't lose value.'when before the 1930s, that practice was vanishingly rare?'Yeah, before that fathers had to pay dowries to husbands for fear the man wouldn't marry the woman. Dowries placed a lot of pressure on families. Bodily adornment has been part of human culture since the beginning of time. You have stains from berries, bones, metals, semi-precious and precious stones. The sense of competition humans feel drives us to distinguish between those who have and those who have not. Diamonds do this.On the 'cultural imperative' surrounding this required purchase of a diamond to get married, well, there are cultural imperatives for nearly every milestone event in life. Let's not talk about just how useless Valentines Day is.I guess the reason why your article bugs me is that I am aware of the blood drawn and the people tortured in the name of these rocks and money. I have and wear diamonds my mother gave me when she passed away. Dad gave her these. There's history (thankfully more than 25 years) and they hold sentimental value for me too. I will pass them on when I pass away. They are forever actually.
May 24, 2010
Why diamonds don’t cut it any more
Only clever marketing has made the colourless stones so precious to us. Isn’t it time we fell out of love with diamonds?
by Helen Rumbelow found at women.timesonline.co.uk May 24, 2010
It’s that moment. He’s on one knee, he opens the box, the ring twinkles in the light. Ah, a diamond! Does that mean it must be love? Or that your suitor has paid a massively overinflated price for a cheap and common stone, whose value is artificially manipulated by a single company founded by Britain’s greatest colonialist, a stone whose profits have recently funded the bloodiest of violent conflicts in Africa, and whose entire modern tradition was invented by an expensive marketing campaign in the mid-20th century?
Hint: if you want to keep the mood romantic, don’t answer b. But think for a while about this gem, which is so naturally abundant as to be, under normal circumstances, practically worthless, and which is hard for many to tell from imitation glass jewellery. Yet it has found itself on to the fingers, and into the most intimate love stories of millions of women. Why do 75 per cent of British grooms-to-be get suckered into buying their fiancées a diamond engagement ring, when before the 1930s, that practice was vanishingly rare?
How have these transparent lumps become so valuable, so contentious, that we learnt last week they may force the supermodel Naomi Campbell before a United Nations war crimes tribunal? She may or may not have been presented with a huge “blood diamond” from Charles Taylor, the former Liberian President now accused of crimes against humanity. She says not, and in quite forceful terms — if you need reminding what Campbell looks like in a strop, watch her storming out of an ABC television interview when cornered on the subject. War, marketing, and celebrity have been tangled up in a trinket that comes with saying “I do”. This piece of jewellery must rank as one of the greatest feats of industrial persuasion of modern times. Just what is it with diamonds?
“I do belive it was chance,” said Tom Zoellner, author of The Heartless Stone: A Journey Through the World of Diamonds, Deceit and Desire. “If another stone had been underground at the time of those particular historical conditions that allowed it to become the cash crop of the British Empire, I think we’d now be wearing something else.”
Diamonds were for centuries a niche market. Human beings have always loved glittery, shiny stones and metals, and the Indian royal family thought diamonds the home of the gods, but Westerners were just as interested in rubies, sapphires and other gems. A rummage through your great-grandmother’s jewellery box rarely brings up diamonds. For engagement rings, pearls were the most popular, given their pure colour and the symbolism of their creation.
Then came Cecil Rhodes, a British boy sent to South Africa for his asthma, where he quickly started to make his fortune buying up ailing diamond mines — one of the most productive was on the farm of the De Beers brothers. Rhodes was a crafty businessman — he knew that diamonds were naturally plentiful but not particularly popular. So first, he needed to make the De Beers company as close to a monopoly as possible, and artificially restrict supply. Second, he had to create a mystique around diamonds.
The near-monopoly De Beers achieved meant that for most of the 20th century their executives could not travel to America, for fear of arrest under anti-trust legislation. In the 1930s, they employed a New York ad company who “pulled off a brilliant marketing coup” says Zoellner. “They saturated the media with so many ads, stating this created fact — that for centuries men had given women diamonds as symbols of the marriage contract, and of course you’ll do the same, or you’ll look cheap. They invented history, with so much repetition and elegance that people believed them.”
This culminated in 1947, when a young copywriter, Frances Gerety, created what Advertising Age voted the most enduring advertising slogan of the 20th century: “A Diamond Is Forever”. The modern association between marriage and diamonds was born.
“What a brilliant thing De Beers has done — set up a tollbooth at the entrance of a life event!” says Zoellner. “Any Western man who is in a position to tie the knot certainly feels a cultural imperative to buy a diamond. They will then feel obliged to spend a month’s or two months’ salary on that ring: a sum that sounds like it comes from a charming Edwardian ritual, but is in fact also from the ad men.”
According to a De Beers survey (the company still sells 45 per cent of the world’s diamonds) men are more likely than women to forsake household items in order to spend more on a diamond ring. The stone is, for them, a measure of love and status. As Greg Campbell, author of Blood Diamonds, says: “several generations have now grown up believing that part of love and marriage is the exchange of this expensive gem. The entire tradition is the creation of the diamond industry.”
What makes this strange is that diamonds, although pretty, have no intrinsic value. Being the hardest natural substance, they are useful for scientific instruments, but beyond that, their value is purely subjective.
“They are far more abundant than the diamond industry will admit,” says Campbell. “Other natural resources that contribute to high-stakes conflict — such as oil, timber, and rubber — at least have a function. All diamonds are for is for display on a ring, earring or necklace to elicit waves of jealousy.”
And so to the term “blood diamond”. Alex Yearsley was the head of the diamond campaign at the charity Global Witness, and advised on the film Blood Diamond, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
“If you have bought a big diamond, more than two carats, in the past 15 years, there’s probably a 30 or 40 per cent chance that it came from Sierra Leone or Angola,” says Yearsley.
Now the law has been changed so that rough diamonds must be certified to say that they have not come from countries where diamonds were financing war and human rights abuses. “Today,” says Yearsley, “you are unlikely to buy a blood diamond, although that depends on the definition of what one is. In some countries the corruption is so entrenched, it’s impossible to crack.”
So, back to that man on one knee, proferring his diamond ring. He has bought it out of love, but also out of years of exposure to diamond-industry slogans. You think him adorable, but also an unimaginative victim of mass-marketing. Not sure you want to say “I do” to that? Me too, but then I’ve never had to decide, as no one’s ever offered me diamonds. On reflection, perhaps there’s a reason for that.
excellentdiamonds.com/EMAIL that was used : buydiamondrinmbf@yahoo.com
MAIN URL:
http://www.excellentdiamonds.com/
by Helen Rumbelow found at women.timesonline.co.uk May 24, 2010
It’s that moment. He’s on one knee, he opens the box, the ring twinkles in the light. Ah, a diamond! Does that mean it must be love? Or that your suitor has paid a massively overinflated price for a cheap and common stone, whose value is artificially manipulated by a single company founded by Britain’s greatest colonialist, a stone whose profits have recently funded the bloodiest of violent conflicts in Africa, and whose entire modern tradition was invented by an expensive marketing campaign in the mid-20th century?
Hint: if you want to keep the mood romantic, don’t answer b. But think for a while about this gem, which is so naturally abundant as to be, under normal circumstances, practically worthless, and which is hard for many to tell from imitation glass jewellery. Yet it has found itself on to the fingers, and into the most intimate love stories of millions of women. Why do 75 per cent of British grooms-to-be get suckered into buying their fiancées a diamond engagement ring, when before the 1930s, that practice was vanishingly rare?
How have these transparent lumps become so valuable, so contentious, that we learnt last week they may force the supermodel Naomi Campbell before a United Nations war crimes tribunal? She may or may not have been presented with a huge “blood diamond” from Charles Taylor, the former Liberian President now accused of crimes against humanity. She says not, and in quite forceful terms — if you need reminding what Campbell looks like in a strop, watch her storming out of an ABC television interview when cornered on the subject. War, marketing, and celebrity have been tangled up in a trinket that comes with saying “I do”. This piece of jewellery must rank as one of the greatest feats of industrial persuasion of modern times. Just what is it with diamonds?
“I do belive it was chance,” said Tom Zoellner, author of The Heartless Stone: A Journey Through the World of Diamonds, Deceit and Desire. “If another stone had been underground at the time of those particular historical conditions that allowed it to become the cash crop of the British Empire, I think we’d now be wearing something else.”
Diamonds were for centuries a niche market. Human beings have always loved glittery, shiny stones and metals, and the Indian royal family thought diamonds the home of the gods, but Westerners were just as interested in rubies, sapphires and other gems. A rummage through your great-grandmother’s jewellery box rarely brings up diamonds. For engagement rings, pearls were the most popular, given their pure colour and the symbolism of their creation.
Then came Cecil Rhodes, a British boy sent to South Africa for his asthma, where he quickly started to make his fortune buying up ailing diamond mines — one of the most productive was on the farm of the De Beers brothers. Rhodes was a crafty businessman — he knew that diamonds were naturally plentiful but not particularly popular. So first, he needed to make the De Beers company as close to a monopoly as possible, and artificially restrict supply. Second, he had to create a mystique around diamonds.
The near-monopoly De Beers achieved meant that for most of the 20th century their executives could not travel to America, for fear of arrest under anti-trust legislation. In the 1930s, they employed a New York ad company who “pulled off a brilliant marketing coup” says Zoellner. “They saturated the media with so many ads, stating this created fact — that for centuries men had given women diamonds as symbols of the marriage contract, and of course you’ll do the same, or you’ll look cheap. They invented history, with so much repetition and elegance that people believed them.”
This culminated in 1947, when a young copywriter, Frances Gerety, created what Advertising Age voted the most enduring advertising slogan of the 20th century: “A Diamond Is Forever”. The modern association between marriage and diamonds was born.
“What a brilliant thing De Beers has done — set up a tollbooth at the entrance of a life event!” says Zoellner. “Any Western man who is in a position to tie the knot certainly feels a cultural imperative to buy a diamond. They will then feel obliged to spend a month’s or two months’ salary on that ring: a sum that sounds like it comes from a charming Edwardian ritual, but is in fact also from the ad men.”
According to a De Beers survey (the company still sells 45 per cent of the world’s diamonds) men are more likely than women to forsake household items in order to spend more on a diamond ring. The stone is, for them, a measure of love and status. As Greg Campbell, author of Blood Diamonds, says: “several generations have now grown up believing that part of love and marriage is the exchange of this expensive gem. The entire tradition is the creation of the diamond industry.”
What makes this strange is that diamonds, although pretty, have no intrinsic value. Being the hardest natural substance, they are useful for scientific instruments, but beyond that, their value is purely subjective.
“They are far more abundant than the diamond industry will admit,” says Campbell. “Other natural resources that contribute to high-stakes conflict — such as oil, timber, and rubber — at least have a function. All diamonds are for is for display on a ring, earring or necklace to elicit waves of jealousy.”
And so to the term “blood diamond”. Alex Yearsley was the head of the diamond campaign at the charity Global Witness, and advised on the film Blood Diamond, starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
“If you have bought a big diamond, more than two carats, in the past 15 years, there’s probably a 30 or 40 per cent chance that it came from Sierra Leone or Angola,” says Yearsley.
Now the law has been changed so that rough diamonds must be certified to say that they have not come from countries where diamonds were financing war and human rights abuses. “Today,” says Yearsley, “you are unlikely to buy a blood diamond, although that depends on the definition of what one is. In some countries the corruption is so entrenched, it’s impossible to crack.”
So, back to that man on one knee, proferring his diamond ring. He has bought it out of love, but also out of years of exposure to diamond-industry slogans. You think him adorable, but also an unimaginative victim of mass-marketing. Not sure you want to say “I do” to that? Me too, but then I’ve never had to decide, as no one’s ever offered me diamonds. On reflection, perhaps there’s a reason for that.
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buy diamond ring Comments:
Carey Hunt wrote:
I suppose if someone got down on one knee and presented their partner with a wad of cash of equivalent value,it would take some of the romance out of the situation,and might leave the lucky lady thinking that she was being treated like a prostitute.In terms of an investment,someone getting married in 1980 say would have been better presenting their partner with some barrels of oil rather than a diamond (10 fold increase vs 2.5 fold).
May 24, 2010 6:47 AM BST on community.timesonline.co.uk
John Doe wrote:
A nicely written article.Shame the Times will be disappearing behind a pay wall soon.
May 24, 2010 5:54 AM BST on community.timesonline.co.uk
Mary Poppins wrote:
Dear Helen, you say 'a cheap and common stone'. Maybe the flawed and very flawed are cheap and common but the less flawed, I think anyway, are not so.'[A stone] whose entire modern tradition was invented by an expensive marketing campaign in the mid-20th century?'Surely it wasn't because when chosen and cut right that they are absolutely beautiful? There's nothing quite as sparkly or beautiful.What about other modern marketing campaigns meant to pull money from our pockets for disposable items that degrade over time and lose value the second you buy them: designer clothes and bags, cars, ever more complicated additions to our homes. At least diamonds don't lose value.'when before the 1930s, that practice was vanishingly rare?'Yeah, before that fathers had to pay dowries to husbands for fear the man wouldn't marry the woman. Dowries placed a lot of pressure on families. Bodily adornment has been part of human culture since the beginning of time. You have stains from berries, bones, metals, semi-precious and precious stones. The sense of competition humans feel drives us to distinguish between those who have and those who have not. Diamonds do this.On the 'cultural imperative' surrounding this required purchase of a diamond to get married, well, there are cultural imperatives for nearly every milestone event in life. Let's not talk about just how useless Valentines Day is.I guess the reason why your article bugs me is that I am aware of the blood drawn and the people tortured in the name of these rocks and money. I have and wear diamonds my mother gave me when she passed away. Dad gave her these. There's history (thankfully more than 25 years) and they hold sentimental value for me too. I will pass them on when I pass away. They are forever actually.
May 24, 2010
Saturday, May 1, 2010
Your request is being processed... Twilight Engagement Ring
Twilight Engagement Ring Can Be All Yours For $1,979
found at huffingtonpost.com 04-28-10
Die-hard "Twilight" fans can get one step closer to the magic with the Twilight engagement ring, Luxist reports. Based on the engagement ring that Edward gives to Bella in "Twilight Eclipse," the domed gold-and-diamond ring was designer by author Stephanie Meyer and Infinite Jewelry Co. It comes in white and yellow gold and can be all yours for $1,979. Swoon.
found at huffingtonpost.com 04-28-10
Die-hard "Twilight" fans can get one step closer to the magic with the Twilight engagement ring, Luxist reports. Based on the engagement ring that Edward gives to Bella in "Twilight Eclipse," the domed gold-and-diamond ring was designer by author Stephanie Meyer and Infinite Jewelry Co. It comes in white and yellow gold and can be all yours for $1,979. Swoon.
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Diamonds News
Gem Diamonds Unable to Predict U.S. Holiday Demand News
By Thomas Biesheuvel found at bloomberg.com
Aug. 26 (Bloomberg) -- Gem Diamonds Ltd., a miner of the precious stones in Lesotho and Australia, said it’s impossible to predict U.S. demand for Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, the most significant sales periods for the industry.
It’s the “most important time of the year by a long shot and there is no visibility on how the U.S. consumer will behave,” Chief Executive Officer Clifford Elphick said in a phone interview today. There will only be a “clear view” of 2010 after seeing the results for Christmas, Elphick said.
Gem Diamonds closed all mines in February except Letseng in Lesotho and one so-called pipe at Ellendale in Australia as the world economic crisis hit luxury goods. The U.S., making up more than 40 percent of diamond demand, is “key” to a recovery, RBC Capital Markets analyst Des Kilalea said last week. Thanksgiving and Christmas deliver 30 percent of consumption, Elphick said.
De Beers, the world’s biggest diamond company, restarted operations in Namibia last month after cutting overall first- half output by 71 percent. ZAO Alrosa, the Russian state-run diamond monopoly, resumed sales in May as demand improved, and it will sell more than $196 million of the gems this month.
“De Beers and Alrosa are coming back into the market quite strongly,” Elphick said. “That’s why I don’t think we’ll see big price increases going forward.” Prices hadn’t recovered enough to restart Gem Diamonds’s mothballed mines, he added.
Diamonds News Profit Doubles
Values will also be held back by limited jewelry demand and inventories at diamond cutters, Gem Diamonds said.
“Demand for diamond jewelry at the retail level has continued to remain below 2007 levels in the U.S.,” the London- based company said in a statement. While diamond prices “firmed” in the second quarter, stockpiles and debt levels at cutting centers are “relatively high,” it said.
Gem Diamonds today reported first-half net income more than doubled to $3.29 million. Sales declined 29 percent to $117.8 million. Elphick said the company is in talks to sell alluvial assets in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic.
The company rose 10 pence, or 3.9 percent, to 270 pence by 10:30 a.m. in London trading.
To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Biesheuvel in London tbiesheuvel@bloomberg.net.
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Tuesday, August 11, 2009
diamond celebrity blog
diamond celebrity is the blog
Robbers steal $78m in jewels
August 12, 2009 found at theaustralian.news.com.auA MASSIVE police hunt is underway in Britain for two men believed to have pulled off the nation's biggest ever jewellery heist.
The armed robbers, dressed in smart suits and ties, made off with an estimated £40 million ($78.65 million) in gems from the exclusive Graff Diamonds store in central London during their daring daylight robbery.
Warning shots were fired and a female staff member briefly held hostage during the holdup, which lasted just minutes. The men, who both carried handguns, stole 43 items from the store on New Bond Street, in the heart of London's fashionable Mayfair district.
Their haul included a white and yellow diamond daisy necklace, double hoop diamond earrings, a platinum white Marquise diamond ring and a men's chronograph 45mm watch.
Police believe the robbery is the biggest ever jewel heist ever seen in Britain, ironically topping a £23 million ($45.23 million) raid at the same store in 2003 and a £30 million ($58.99 million) raid on Cartier in 1997.
While the robbery occurred last Friday, police only revealed the extent of the heist today as they launched an appeal for witnesses to come forward.
The men walked into the well-guarded Graff Diamonds - whose celebrity clients include supermodel Naomi Campbell and Victoria and David Beckham - about 4.40pm local time on August 6 and threatened staff with handguns.
In just a matter of minutes they ordered staff to hand over a variety of necklaces, bracelets, rings and watches before fleeing, seizing a female staff member on their way out.
The woman was left on the street as the robbers fired a warning shot into the air and leapt into a waiting blue BMW to make their escape.
Police said the BMW weaved its way through nearby streets before colliding with a black taxi.
The men abandoned their vehicle, firing another warning shot into the ground, and switched to a silver Mercedes which drove them a short distance to another waiting getaway car.
Police believe at some point while the men switched cars, they handed the jewels over to a waiting motorcyclist who sped off with the valuable haul.
Releasing CCTV images of the men on Friday, Metropolitan Police Flying Squad detective chief inspector Pam Mace appealed for the public to find the robbers.
"This was a well-planned robbery with a number of vehicles used to help the robbers escape," she said. "These men are extremely dangerous and fired at least two shots in busy London streets as they made their getaway.
"Someone knows who these men are, they would undoubtedly have spoken about it beforehand or boasted about it afterwards.
"I would urge anyone who recognises them, knows the whereabouts of the jewellery or has any other information to contact us."
Both men, believed to be in their 30s and about 182cm tall, wore grey suits and white shirts with ties.
One was of Caucasian appearance with a slim build, dark hair and stubble. The second man was black with a short Afro hair style.
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Israeli Government to Underwrite Training of Diamond Polishers Progress made toward government aid for credit to diamond industry
found at RAPAPORT... Press Release - Jerusalem, Israel, August 11, 2009:
At a meeting with the leaders of the Israeli diamond industry yesterday, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, Israel’s minister of industry, trade and labor, said that he would help finance a professional training program for diamond polishers. The ministry program, to be implemented in 2009-2010, will train 100 unemployed individuals to become polishers on the level of “Excellent.”
Diamond leaders said that there is currently a shortage of “Excellent” diamond polishers in the Israeli industry, and that this step would increase local production by hundreds of millions of dollars. They said that all of the workers would be hired by local manufacturers.
Minister Ben-Eliezer said that this program is part of a package of measures to aid the local diamond industry, which has been hit hard by the world economic crisis. The minister said that he has asked the Ministry of Finance to find specific solutions to help the diamond industry, and that progress has been made in the area of credit with the Finance Ministry and the Israeli banks.
Moti Ganz, chairman of the Israel Diamond Institute (IDI) group of companies and president of the Israel Diamond Manufacturers Association (IsDMA), noted, “We view the training of “Excellent” diamond polishers as of great importance. This program will expand the know-how and capabilities of the industry, and will increase the export of Israeli diamonds, which are known for their high quality.”
Avi Paz, Israel Diamond Exchange (IDE) president, thanked Minister Ben-Eliezer for his efforts on behalf of the industry. “The government must take every step in order to assist the industry during this difficult time. This is the first step in a package of aid that is needed urgently by the Israeli diamond industry. Our highest priority is to receive government-backed credit. The world economic crisis has seriously affected the industry here, as it has around the world. We see that the governments of India and Belgium have aided their industries with billions of dollars of credit with government guarantees. It is important for Israel to maintain its leading position in the world, and for that government aid is essential.”
Eli Avidar, IDI managing director, said, “We are pleased with our cooperation with the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, headed by Minister Ben-Eliezer, in the area of professional training. We are certain that this cooperation will bring new blood into the industry and new opportunities for employment.”
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Israeli Government to Underwrite Training of Diamond Polishers Progress made toward government aid for credit to diamond industry
found at RAPAPORT... Press Release - Jerusalem, Israel, August 11, 2009:
At a meeting with the leaders of the Israeli diamond industry yesterday, Benjamin Ben-Eliezer, Israel’s minister of industry, trade and labor, said that he would help finance a professional training program for diamond polishers. The ministry program, to be implemented in 2009-2010, will train 100 unemployed individuals to become polishers on the level of “Excellent.”
Diamond leaders said that there is currently a shortage of “Excellent” diamond polishers in the Israeli industry, and that this step would increase local production by hundreds of millions of dollars. They said that all of the workers would be hired by local manufacturers.
Minister Ben-Eliezer said that this program is part of a package of measures to aid the local diamond industry, which has been hit hard by the world economic crisis. The minister said that he has asked the Ministry of Finance to find specific solutions to help the diamond industry, and that progress has been made in the area of credit with the Finance Ministry and the Israeli banks.
Moti Ganz, chairman of the Israel Diamond Institute (IDI) group of companies and president of the Israel Diamond Manufacturers Association (IsDMA), noted, “We view the training of “Excellent” diamond polishers as of great importance. This program will expand the know-how and capabilities of the industry, and will increase the export of Israeli diamonds, which are known for their high quality.”
Avi Paz, Israel Diamond Exchange (IDE) president, thanked Minister Ben-Eliezer for his efforts on behalf of the industry. “The government must take every step in order to assist the industry during this difficult time. This is the first step in a package of aid that is needed urgently by the Israeli diamond industry. Our highest priority is to receive government-backed credit. The world economic crisis has seriously affected the industry here, as it has around the world. We see that the governments of India and Belgium have aided their industries with billions of dollars of credit with government guarantees. It is important for Israel to maintain its leading position in the world, and for that government aid is essential.”
Eli Avidar, IDI managing director, said, “We are pleased with our cooperation with the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor, headed by Minister Ben-Eliezer, in the area of professional training. We are certain that this cooperation will bring new blood into the industry and new opportunities for employment.”
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