A Review Team from the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme commenced its five day visit to India with an introductory meeting with the GJEPC’s Diamond Panel Committee as well as the GJEPC ED and team in charge of KP at Mumbai this morning. The five member team will be visiting different facilities and offices related to the export process and the issuing of KP certificates during its visit.

The Review team comprises Mr Joris Heeren, Deputy-Head of Unit, Service for Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI), European Union at Brussels; Mr Damian Lluna-Taberner, Unit FPI 5, Foreign Policy Instruments (FPI), European Union at Brussels; Ms Koketso Marumo, Minerals officer, Diamond Hub - Diamond Office, Ministry of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security, Botswana at Gaborone; Mr. Shmuel Mordechai, Diamond Controller, Ministry of Economy and Industry, Tel Aviv, Israel and Mr Peter Karakchiev, Alrosa, Russia representing the World Diamond Council.

During their stay in Mumbai the team will visit the Customs facilities at BDB and the Airport, have meetings with the GJEPC and the Customs officials, visit the India Diamond Trading Centre where companies can display rough diamonds for viewing prior to auction or other online sales and the GII/DDRC centre for detection of any mixing of natural and synthetics. They will also interact with the GJNRF to understand the CSR activity undertaken by the industry.

Subsequently, they will go to Surat and Ahmedabad where they will visit the GJEPC and Customs offices, few diamond manufacturing facilities, the DDRC at IDI, the Common Facility Centre for small scale units etc.

Finally, they will travel to Delhi for the last leg of the visit where they will meet and interact with officials of the Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Govt.of India.