Over 3,000 lots of gems sold at Myanmar gems show

A total of 3,652 lots of jade, gems and pearls have been sold at a 13-day annual Myanmar gems exposition held in Yangon on the basis of competitive bidding and tender, said emporium sources Wednesday without disclosing the sale value as the previous years did.

The 44th annual gem show at the Myanmar Gems Emporium Hall and Myanmar Convention Center was sponsored by the state-run Myanmar Gems Enterprise (MGE) and ended late Tuesday. It gathered together a total of 3,421 merchants including 2,069 foreign traders mainly from China, China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) and Thailand.

In March last year, the 11-day 43rd annual Myanmar gems emporium broke sale record since it was introduced 42 years ago with 101 million U.S. dollars, attended by 2,380 gem merchants including 1,484 of 423 companies from 16 countries and regions.

Between two annual shows, there is a mid-year one introduced since over a decade ago to boost gem sale and in the last mid-year event held in October last year, a total of 2,843 lots of jade, gems and pearls were sold. The event was joined by a total of 3, 233 foreign and local merchants.

Myanmar started to hold gem shows annually in 1964, introducing the mid-year one since 1992 and the special one since 2004. These shows have earned a total of over 600 million dollars for the country, according to official statistics.

Myanmar, a well-known producer of gems in the world, holds nine gems -- ruby, diamond, cat's eye, emerald, topaz, pearl, sapphire, coral and a variety of garnet tinged with yellow.

There are three famous gem lands in Myanmar -- Mogok in Mandalay division, Mongshu in Shan state and Phakant in Kachin state.

To develop gem mining industry, Myanmar enacted the New Gemstone Law in 1995, allowing national entrepreneurs to mine, produce, transport and sell finished gemstone and manufactured jewelry at home and abroad.

Since 2000, the government has started mining of gems and jade in joint ventures with 10 private companies under profit sharing basis.

Meanwhile, Myanmar has stressed the need for gem entrepreneurs in the country to produce quality gem products through advanced methods to gain foothold in both international and domestic markets and the sale be finished value-added items rather than raw ones.

Source: Xinhua