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Antwerp Diamond Companies are faced with several physical threats: fraud, theft, switching, robbery, burglary, tigerkidnapping … In the last few months, AWDC SO has been observing the emergence of another type of threat: cyber crime. Examples of cyber crime include, but are not limited to: e-mail hacking, caller ID fraud, money exchange fraud, invoice fraud, bank transfer fraud, malware attacks …
The briefing will take place on Tuesday 16 December from 14h00 until 15h00 in the Boardroom of the AWDC building.
Singapore is becoming a booming retail market for jewelry. Having traditionally acted as a link in the diamond supply chain between Antwerp and India, today, an increasing number of luxury brands are now opening retail stores in Singapore due to rising consumer demand. "Over the next five years, Singapore's jewelry market is expected to increase by an average of 3% each year," says Ari Epstein, CEO of the AWDC. “Diamonds could play a major part in that development, which makes diamond funding interesting for Singapore as well.”
In an interview with Haslinda Amin on Bloomberg Television, Ari Epstein talks about the growing demand for diamonds and the role Antwerp plays in the global diamond industry.
Click here to watch the interview.
In the framework of its "Integrated Anti-Tigerkidnapping Program", AWDC Security Office will be organizing a briefing on tigerkidnapping, aimed at everyone who works in the Antwerp diamond sector.
The briefing will take place on Tuesday, December 16, from 11h00 until 12h00 in the Boardroom of the AWDC building.
The Malaysian diamond market is at a turning point. "Last year, Malaysia, which is particularly fond of gold, saw its diamond demand increase,” says Ari Epstein, CEO of the Antwerp World Diamond Centre. Malaysia’s economic instability and fluctuating gold prices, however, remain a challenge for evolution of the diamond trade.
Certain parts of Belgium may experience a power shortage over the upcoming winter period due to problems at two Belgian nuclear plants, the federal government recently announced.
Although the federal, regional and local governments have initiated several action plans to avoid power shortages and outages, it cannot be entirely ruled out that power shortages or outages will occur.
With that in mind, the governments have developed a "worst-case scenario" plan, in which six predetermined sections of the power grid will be turned off one-by-one, but not all at once, in an orderly manner for approximately three hours (between 17h00 - 20h00). The power outage will affect both public and private power supply, including power supply to residences, public lighting, streetlights, telecommunications (landlines, mobile phones and connection to the Internet), etc. We emphasize that the government will communicate any power outage in advance to those who will be affected.
More than 100 Antwerp, Malaysian and Singapore diamond dealers are set to meet next week as part of the Belgian Economic Mission to Malaysia and Singapore. The mission is presided over by Her Royal Highness Princess Astrid of Belgium, Representative of His Majesty the King.
On 14 November, AWDC attended the 12th edition of the Kimberley Process Plenary Meeting in Guangzhou, China. Among the participants were representatives of governments from more than 50 countries and a delegation of the World Diamond Council (WDC).
