The World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB), together with seven other, major diamond industry umbrella organizations, announced regretfully it is withdrawing its participation in the upcoming World Diamond Council Annual General Meeting that is to take place later this week, starting on October 28, in Antwerp, Belgium.

The World Federation of Diamond Bourses (WFDB); the Gem & Jewellery Export Promotion Council of India (GJEPC), the Federation of Belgian Diamond Bourses (FBDB) the Bharat Diamond Bourse (BDB), the Israel Diamond Exchange (IDE) the Israel Diamond Institute (IDI); the Dubai Diamond Exchange (DDE) and CIBJO, the World Jewellery Confederation signed and sent a joint letter to the World Diamond Council (WDC) announcing that they resolved not to "participate in this annual general meeting of the WDC" until the direction that WDC current leadership intends to take is satisfactorily explained.

The signatories expressed their disappointment at the actions the "WDC has taken during the course of the past few months and leading up to the meeting scheduled for 28 October 2014 in Antwerp, including but not limited to the biased survey conducted without consulting 98% of the industry, represented by the signatories."

While emphasizing that the signatories remain "committed to the spirit and the enforcement of the Kimberley Process Scheme" and arguing that their letter should "in no manner whatsoever be construed either to be an attempt to not comply or to avoid the Kimberley Process Scheme," they at the same time declared that "whilst the mandate of our members is clear and set out herein, we will not support any entity under the parentage of the World Federation of Diamond Bourses, which has appeared to take arbitrary decisions in a lack of transparency.”

It is therefore the sincerest wish of the signatories to develop and foster a fruitful and meaningful relationship with the WDC in the future.