The Kimberley Process (KP) Plenary meeting from 8th-12th November 2021 will have a hybrid format, according to the Russian Federation, the current KP Chair. The Plenary will take place both online and in-person \u2013 for those who will be able to visit Moscow (subject to national Covid-19 restrictions and quarantine rules applied when entering Russia).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia\u2019s Ministry of Finance said the proposed Plenary format should become an effective tool for the continuation of the KP’s work despite the global restrictions of holding face-to-face meetings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Plenary agenda will focus on finalisation of the working plans of the KP working bodies for 2021 as well as general issues reflected in the priority initiatives promoted by the Russian Chairmanship that are of high importance for the sustainable development of the global diamond industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First, the digitalisation of KP Certificates accompanying every export-import operation with rough diamonds aimed at modernisation to meet the current technological realities, particularly under the challenging circumstances of Covid-19 pandemic restrictions and limitations. KP will set the basis for work in this direction and is also open to cooperation in this sphere with external organisations to learn from their experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Russian Ministry of Finance and Federal Customs Service are finalising the first pilot electronic information exchange with one of the key trading partners and soon will be ready to present the experience of digital exchange for the whole KP Family as the best practice along with contributions from other KP Participants already implementing digital solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe plan to build upon the progress of discussions related to the possibility of changing the KP documents amongst other ways to facilitate digitalisation as much as possible within the Working Group of Diamond Experts and its Ad hoc group on digitalisation co-founded by Russia and other venues for those who are willing to move forward on this issue,\u201d the official statement read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Second, Russia also called on KP Participants to support the draft Declaration on the so-called \u201cPrinciples of Responsible Diamond Sourcing\u201d as the best practice for the industry. It noted that most of the Participants and Observers have responded positively to the declaration co-drafted by the two largest diamond mining countries \u2013 Russia and Botswana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another key topic is the situation in the Central African Republic (CAR), where the KP is expected to send an expert mission to evaluate the effectiveness of the 2019 post-verification mechanism and compliance of CAR individual regions with the minimum requirements of the KP Certification Scheme (KPCS).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
KP will also consider the applications of new countries to join the KPCS, a process that had been paused due to the pandemic. Nevertheless, as the pandemic situation \u201cnormalised\u201d to a certain extent the KP managed to organise expert missions to Qatar and Kyrgyz Republic and plans to apply the same approach towards the application of Mozambique. The dedicated Chairmanship and Participation Committee and the Plenary will consider the respective reports of the expert missions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Russia will continue working with the KP partners to facilitate a consensus on selecting the location of the future permanent KP Secretariat that will allow to streamline the work of the KP Working Bodies and provide effective mechanisms of administrative support for the forum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Kimberley Process (KP) Plenary meeting from 8th-12th November 2021 will have a hybrid format, according to the Russian Federation, the current KP Chair. The Plenary will take place both online and in-person \u2013 for those who will be able to visit Moscow (subject to national Covid-19 restrictions and quarantine rules applied when entering Russia).…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11050,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[],"thb-sponsors":[],"class_list":["post-11049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bulletin"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n