Panama opens up Latin American Diamond Market
Filed Under (Asset and Wealth Protection) by admin on 25-09-2008
As Q Wealth readers will know, Latin America is rich in minerals, and Panama has a steadfast reputation for offshore banking – but the diamond trade is something new for Panama. Panama is building Latin America’s first diamond bourse – destined to become one of the main players in the wholesale diamond market.
“Latin America is the last frontier,” said Erez Akerman, who heads the Panama Diamond Exchange, the group behind the project. “We are looking at four main markets: Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Chile,” he told Reuters in the exchange’s temporary offices in one of Panama City’s upscale districts.
The $200-million project, due to be up and running by 2010, will – according to Reuters – include a purpose-built 50-story skyscraper in the city’s banking district with safes, a gemmological institute, laboratories, polishing and cutting facilities.
Panama will make the exchange a tax-free zone and has applied to join the “Kimberly Process”, a due diligence accord designed to stop the spread of so-called conflict or blood diamonds. This will mean, for example, that Brazilian rough diamonds can be traded in the city.
This is certainly one to watch. With world financial markets collapsing all around us, business-friendly Panama is looking more at the hard assets we have long been recommending, like gemstones and gold.
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