EPB eyes processed diamond export

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Naim-Ul-Karim
The government is taking a move soon to make the country's Export and Import Policy time-worthy, which will envisage earning of a substantial amount of foreign exchange through export of processed-diamond, sources said.
"Of late, we have realised that there is a huge potential for boosting earning to a substantial level through exporting processed-diamond," a senior official of the Export Promotion Bureau (EPB) told the FE.
He said the EPB Thursday held a meeting to discuss ways to import rough diamond and export the precious stone after cutting and polishing.
The EPB convened the meeting to decide on some new rules and regulations that will be incorporated in the export and import policy to help import of rough diamond and export processed-diamond, the EPB official said.
He said the meeting with its vice chairman Sahab Ullah, in the chair, was attended by the representatives of all stakeholders including the National Board of Revenue (NBR), the Bangladesh Bank and the office of chief controller of Export and Import.
As import and export of diamond is a sensitive issue given the scope for terror financing, a source said, there is no clear provision in the existing export and import policy to encourage export of processed diamond.
"We need to incorporate new rules and regulation carefully. Actually, we will require to follow internationally-set guidelines in this connection to avoid complicacy," a source further said.
"We will soon send the recommendations to the ministry concerned for approval," he said.
Mentioning the Indian diamond industry, which employs around 0.8 million people, sources said, in the global diamond market today, that country's diamonds account for 55 per cent share in value terms, 80 per cent share in caratage (weight) terms and 90 per cent share in volume terms.
The skilled and low-cost labour-based diamond cutting and processing industry is likely to go to the hands of some LDCs in near future, as India and China are moving fast towards industrialisation, they mentioned.
They said this will be a timely effort from the government to incorporate the required rules and regulations in the policy to encourage the country's private sector to invest in the diamond business.