The National Gem and Jewellery Authority Sri Lanka was recently visited by a 20 member delegation from the Italian Gemmological Institute (IGI).
Discussions were held between the delegates and the senior officials of the NGJA on how they could work on programmes that would be of mutual benefit to both the IGI and NGJA.
For photographs of the meeting please see this post.
The delegates also met with the chairman and CEO of the National Gem and Jewellery Authority (NGJA), Hasitha Tillekeratne.
The Italian Gemmological Institute is an Italian based non-profit association that focuses on the dissemination of gemmological knowledge by organizing professional trainings, spreading a unified gemmological terminology and coaching highly qualified gemmologists.
The IGI organizes informative meetings with interested parties to provide professional updates.
A multimedia presentation was organized for the Italian gemmologists, which highlighted the wide range of gemstones available in Sri Lanka, jewelry manufacturing and precision gem cutting.
A visit to the Sri Lanka Gem and Jewellery Exchange and to the gemstone mines at the gem city, Ratnapura was also organized by the NGJA.
The consumption of jewelry by the Italian market was 5.1 billion euro in 2008. Italy also imported jewelry worth 1.4 billion euros in 2008.