The proposal, contained in a policy draft prepared by Bernard Busani, seeks to position diamond beneficiation as the next phase of the country's diamond development. According to the draft, this will be acheived by expanding the country's participation beyond mining, sorting, valuation and sales into manufacturing, jewellery, trading, technology and other downstream activities. The rescheduled policy forum is expected to give BNF members an opportunity to approve, amend or reject the proposal before it can be taken to the Umbrella for Democratic Change’s (UDC) National Executive Committee (NEC) for consideration.
The proposed Diamond Beneficiation City would be a purpose-built and secure business district. It is envisaged to bring together cutting and polishing, jewellery manufacturing, diamond trading, certification, technology, finance, logistics, training, retail and other specialised services. However, it does not call for government to immediately commit to building the city. Instead, the policy recommends that government first commission a bankable feasibility study to establish whether the project is commercially viable, its optimum location and size, the appropriate investment structure and how it could ultimately be implemented.
