Addressing a business conference in Atlanta, USA recently, BOCCIM president Alex Monchusi said they have proposed the creation of a diamond city to capture the diamond-related business and economic spin-offs associated with the relocation of the world's largest diamond trading company, DTC International, from London to Gaborone .Monchusi was among 40 representatives of parastatals, government hubs, ministries and the private sector who participated at the NBCC convention last week.
He noted that BOCCIM's collaboration with the NBCC would ensure that Gaborone does not lose the opportunities to nearby cities such as Johannesburg and Cape Town. Gaborone will be joining world diamond centres such as the Diamond District in New York, Antwerp Diamond District in Belgium and the Diamond Exchange District in Israel. Since Gaborone is not yet well developed to become a diamond city, BOCCIM came up with alternative means to make it suitable for a diamond centre. "BOCCIM proposed to benchmark studies of the world diamond cities to help us focus and create a model of the diamond city we would like to see," said Monchusi.
