Organisers of the Arusha International Gem, Jewellery and Mineral Fair
(AIGJMF 2012) held in Arusha recently said on Wednesday that the show was
successful.
The Fair Organising Chairman, Mr Abe Suleiman, told the ‘Daily News’
that the show was well attended, while a number of deals and direct sales were
concluded.
“We don’t want to blow our own trumpet, but visitors have told us that
the show was well organised,” Mr Suleiman said over the phone from Arusha.
He, however, said there was room for further improvement to make the
show one of the best on the African continent.
Mr Suleiman said up to Sunday evening records showed that the fair made
transactions worth 3.5 million US dollars (about 5.6bn/-) and dealers were
still going on with business.Therefore, the amount is projected to increase.
“We are making final compilation of sales and by Friday we will be in a
better position to give exact figures, but it might be between 4.0 million US
dollars (about 7.2bn/- ) and 5.0 million US dollars (about 8bn/-),” Mr Suleiman
said.
The Chairman said tanzanite was the most attractive gem at the show,
but other minerals like savorite from Tunduru and Songea in Ruvuma Region, ruby
and spinel from Mahenge in Morogoro Region also were sold in big quantities.
The AIGJMF 2012 attracted mineral traders from Nigeria, Mozambique,
Congo DRC, Malawi and neighbouring countries in the East African Community
(EAC).
He said Minister for Energy and Minerals, Mr William Ngeleja, has
already announced that the next edition of AIGJMF will be held between April 18
and 22 next year.
The government wants to turn Arusha into a regional gemstones centre
due to its comparative advantages including geographic location and minerals.
The city is also having necessary infrastructure like international
banking system, communication and accommodation facilities.
Previous shows which were halted a decade ago, according to available
information from the Ministry of Energy and Minerals, used to generate up to
600,000 US dollars (about 960m/-) annually.
Source: The Daily News, http://dailynews.co.tz, reported by Abduel Elinaza
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