The establishment of the World Diamond and Jewellery Forum (WDJF) and leadership team was announced in Venice last month prior to the opening of the Vicenzaoro jewellery trade show.
The WDJF’s members will include: honorary life president of the World Diamond Council, the World Federation of Diamond Bourses and CIBJO Eli Izhakoff who has assumed the role of WDJF chairman; CIBJO president Gaetano Cavalieri as WDJF president; and Corrado Facco, managing director of business platform, event organiser and service provider Fiera di Vicenza, as WDJF managing director.
It will operate under the auspices of Fiera di Vicenza.
Matteo Marzotto, president of Fiera di Vicenza, likened the new organisation to the World Economic Forum, commenting that the group intended to serve the jewellery industry in the same manner.
“Like the World Economic Forum, while WDJF will engage with and encourage the participation of the leadership of the industry, it will remain independent of politics,” he explained.
“It is not meant to supplant any existing organisations; in fact it is intended to serve the interests of all those bodies. Representatives of the other industry organisations will be invited to participate in WDJF’s deliberations and to tap into its knowledge base.”
Cavalieri expanded upon this, stating that in addition to the jewellery industry, the “fully inclusive” forum would welcome input from government, the international community, academia and other business sectors in order to “analyse and consider current and future developments, and to influence and help shape global, regional and domestic agendas” across all gemstone and jewellery sectors.
Izhakoff explained that the forum would fill a void, providing the holistic analysis and planning mechanism that the diamond and jewellery industries needed in order to better prepare for threats such as market collapses and financial crises.
Further details on how the WDJF will operate are expected to be released in the coming months, with the organisation’s first public forum scheduled for 23 to 26 April 2015 in conjunction with the Vicenzaoro show in Dubai.