| Mogae wants African diamond producers to control entire industry |
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| Written by Staff Reporters | |
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The former president of Botswana, Festus Mogae, has said diamond-producing African countries should share in all aspects of the diamond industry. He says producers should move away from being just diggers of the roughs to also being cutters and processors of the finished products.
“Our aspiration is not to take diamonds from your
existing operations wherever they are, nor to stop you from utilizing
the least-cost manufacturing centres, but to call on you to establish
manufacturing facilities in our country in addition to what you have
elsewhere. You must also consider the advantages that we offer as an
emerging economy,” he told a conference organised by De Beers in South
Africa.
He said as De Beers and diamond-producing countries establish new business models, the future of Africa should be at the heart of plans for the majority of rough diamonds are from the continent. “The people of the continent, both present and future generations, will demand nothing less than sharing the fruits of their raw materials,” he said. He said Botswana, the leading producer of diamonds by value, aspires to see itself as the hub of diamond activities in future. De Beers and the government last year established DTC Botswana, moving operations from London. Botswana intends to be a Diamond Hub, with the establishment of Diamond Trading and associated diamond banking, diamond cutting and polishing and jewellery manufacturing. Botswana’s annual economic growth has averaged 9 % annually over the past four decades, mainly due to diamond mining. Since independence, there has been a significant decline in poverty rates from 59% in 1986, to 47% in 1994, 30% in 2004 and a projected 23% in 2009. Unemployment was reduced from 21.5% in 1996 to 17.6% in 2006. The mining sector is, despite efforts to diversify Botswana’s economy away from it, still a dominant player in our economic activity. Diamonds at over 30 million carats per year remain the largest contributor to Botswana’s foreign exchange earnings (about 70%). Botswana has vast coal reserves estimated at 200 billion tons. |
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