Gold and Jewellery Group Dubai announces 2nd annual City of Gold Conference on 6th and 7th December 2003

The theme of the prestigious conference will be the growth of Dubai as a major international hub for the jewellery, gems and precious metals industry and it will be held on December 6 & 7 at the Emirates Towers Hotel with participation from global industry experts.

Opening the event will be His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman of the Department of Civil Aviation and President of Emirates Group. Other Government speakers include HE Dr. Mohammed Khalfan bin Khirbash, HE Sultan bin Sulayem, Executive Chairman Dubai Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation and HE Mohammed Al Gergawi, Chairman, Dubai Development and Investment Authority.

A high profile list of international experts from global centres of industry expertise including Australia, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Japan, South Africa, UK and the USA will be present at the event that has now grown to cover two days. It is set to become one of the most influential annual events in the jewellery, gems and precious metals sector.

Speakers include:

•Kelvin Williams, Executive Director Marketing for the world's leading gold mining company, AngloGold

•John Wixley, Global Head, Structured Products, Standard Bank

•Stephen Lussier, Executive Director of the Diamond Trading Company (De Beers)

•James Courage, Chief Executive of the London-based Platinum Guild International

•Federico Minoli, Chairman of Uno A Erre, the Italian world leader in jewellery production

•Peter Meeus, Managing Director of the Antwerp Diamond High Council

•Erhard Oberli, Managing Director, Argor-Heraeus

•Dr. Ursula Oser, Vice President, Credit and Fixed Income Research, Credit Suisse.

The conference is organised by the Gold and Jewellery Group Dubai with the support of international, regional and local companies and organisations. This year the event is being organised with the support of the Dubai Metals and Commodities Centre and in association with Omega Investment Research of South Africa who have extensive international experience in the gold and precious metals sectors. The official carrier for the conference is Emirates Airline.

It has also attracted a high profile list of sponsors reflecting the prestige that is now attached to Dubai as it becomes one of the world's leading centres - building on the city's existing international status as the 'City of Gold'.

Gold and Jewellery Group Dubai Chairman, Tawhid Abdullah, explained that the conference was designed to enhance Dubai's rapidly growing position as one of the true global centres for the jewellery, gems and precious metals industry.

'The enormous success of first conference, held only last January, has led to us expand the event to two days giving us a far wider spread of international speakers. For our second conference, for example, we are now going to have a section solely dedicated to the mining industry featuring top level speakers from South Africa - the world's leading gold and diamond producer,' explained Mr. Abdullah.

'We have a world class array of speakers traveling to us from all over the world and representing the full range of our industry - from financial specialists, to marketing experts in gold, diamonds and platinum, miners from South Africa, manufacturers from Italy and Japan and the UAE.

'We are also honoured to have senior Government of Dubai officials to speak, demonstrating the importance they place in our industry and its dramatic growth as a true international hub.'

Ahmed Bin Sulayem, Chief Operating Officer of Dubai Metals and Commodities Centre, added: 'We are very proud to be giving our support to this conference - an event that has become truly international through the profile of its speakers and delegates attending. At DMCC we are also pleased to see so much of the event devoted to manufacturing and mining - showing that Dubai is now becoming so much more than simply a centre for selling the finest jewellery.

'Through partnership and international conference such as these Dubai will start to assume a far greater importance in the global marketplace for precious metals, gems and jewellery.'

The two day conference has been separated into different modules to allow delegates to focus on a wide ranging areas of interest including:

•Trade related finance and investment;

•The marketing of precious metals, diamonds and gems

•Manufacturing

•Mining -featuring expert speakers from South Africa

Conference Organising Committee Chairman Andre Bisang said: 'There will be ample opportunity for interaction with our speakers through question and answer sessions throughout the two days. Kelvin Williams from AngloGold will also chair a panel discussion on the first day about the challenges of changing global consumer trends and how that will impact our industry.

'With such a world class array of speakers we are fully confident that our second conference will build on the success of the first and establish this event as one of the leading annual events of its kind in the world.'

Key sponsors for the conference are AngloGold, Standard Bank, Credit Suisse, Diamond Trading Council (De Beers) and the World Gold Council.Support sponsors are Commerzbank International SA, Fiera de Vicenza, National Bank of Dubai and Scotia Mocatta, Transguard and Sisma.