The president of the Shanghai Diamond Exchange said it expects trading to grow at least 20 percent this year.

Transactions jumped 53.4 percent to US$1 billion last year and a strong growth is on the cards this year, Lin Qiang, president of the exchange, told Shanghai Daily yesterday.

China is the world's fourth biggest diamond jewelry market and the second largest diamond cutting center with total volume of diamonds processed reaching about 6.0 million to 6.5 million carats annually, valued at up to US$1.5 billion.

China has cut the value added tax on imported polished diamonds from 17 percent to 4 percent since July 1, 2006, while imported rough diamond is exempted from paying VAT. Rough and polished stones traded in the bourse have been exempted from customs duty since 2002.

The 33rd World Diamond Congress, hosted by the Shanghai bourse, ended in the city yesterday, the first time the event was held in China.

The 33rd World Diamond Congress, hosted by the Shanghai bourse, ended in the city yesterday, the first time the event was held in China. The conference was held by the World Federation of Diamond Bourses and the International Diamond Manufacturers Association.

During the meeting, the two bodies accepted a revised set of International Diamond Council Rules for Grading Diamonds, which ruled that diamonds created in a laboratory can be described as "synthetic", "laboratory-grown," "laboratory-created," or "man-made" and the term must be followed by the word "diamond" or "diamonds". The term "cultured" is barred to avoid confusing consumers.

Avi Paz, WFDB president, said yesterday that the United States subprime crisis challenged diamond sales in the US, the world's biggest diamond market.

(Shanghai Daily May 16, 2008)