The signing of two MOUs in Shanghai today, on the sidelines of the 2nd China International Import Expo which was inaugurated by Chinese President, Mr Xi Jinping, marks a big step in efforts to boost cooperation and collaboration between different segments of the gems and jewellery industries of India and China and was a historic moment for both sides.

While one MOU was exchanged between The Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) and the China Gem and Jade Exchange, the other was between the Gemmological Institute of India (GII), a project of GJEPC and the National Gemstone Testing Centre of China.

The first agreement aims to provide a cooperation framework to co-design cooperative plans and to conduct cooperation in the field of promotion of international trading of coloured stones and jewellery. The two organisations will set up an information exchange mechanism, jointly organize buyer-sellers meets (BSM), seminars, exhibitions, buyers group delegations and/or suppliers group activities, etc and conduct capacity building activities including personnel & professional exchange, visiting activities and training programmes.

Some of the activities that will be taken up in the coming year include holding BSM on the premises of China Gem & Jade Exchange in Shanghai; and participation in the India Colored Stone Week in Jaipur (April), the IIJS Show in Mumbai (August), the India Diamond Week in Mumbai (October) and the China International Import Expo (CIIE) 2020 in Shanghai, among others.

The MOU between GII and NGTC strengthens the cooperation that was already established between the two with the signing of a joint Letter of Intent in 2017. A key area for collaboration under the MOU include jewellery education and training, with exchange of faculty members and diamond graders and a setting up of a cooperation group with a view to discuss cooperation methods and jointly develop the training and education market.

It also identifies joint certification as another goal, with the two parties agreeing to carry out the harmonization of diamond grading standards and the uniform testing of laboratory processes and rules for gems, diamonds and diamond jewellery under the unified framework of the Asia-Pacific Gemstone and Technology Standardization Alliance (AGA).

Under the MOU, the two sides will also continue ongoing work for development of an instrument for diamond grading and a method, and eventually a color grading instrument, after conducting sufficient measurements. They will also jointly explore development of other types of jewellery-related instruments.

Pic caption: MOU exchange ceremony between GJEPC and China Gem and Jade Exchange