Most of bankers who attended the seminar on “Emerging trends in financing of Indian diamond and jewellery sector” organized by the Gems & Jewellery Export Promotion Council (GJEPC) stressed upon the need to expand exposure in diamond jewellery sector while at the same time following prudent risk management norms.Vipul Shah, Chairman of the Gems & Jewellery Export Promotion Council, said that jewellery exports have started moving up, albeit gradually, with 2.9 per cent growth witnessed in February this year. Overall negative growth in gems and jewellery exports have narrowed down to just 1.9 per cent in the first 11 months of the current financial year.

With the Basel III norm coming into play effective from April 1, 2013 require more of reserve capital for doing same size of business. This means cost of borrowing will go up.At the same time, however, banks will have to look at the clients with stricter due diligence, focus more on corporatization and their external and internal investment grade ratings, said Shyamal Acharya, Deputy Managing Director of State Bank of India, India’s largest public sector lender. GJEPC, affirmed participants that the industry has started moving up on recovering sentiment in global economies. Although, euro zone economies continue to remain under pressure, the recovery in the US and Asian zone gives a positive indication for gems and jewellery sector growth going forward.