BW2037 APR 17,2002 4:01 PACIFIC 07:01 EASTERN
( BW)(NY-WORLD-GOLD-COUNCIL) World Gold Council Creating New Relevance and Image for Gold
Business Editors
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 17, 2002--
Australian meeting focuses on crucial Global Industry Issues
More than 150 gold industry leaders, together with delegates and media from around the world gathered in Melbourne today to attend the World Gold Council Annual Meeting, the first to be held in Australia.
The meeting focused on a number of global industry issues, including perception, demand and retention of gold and the liberalization of the gold industry in developing markets, such as China and India. It also considered the three functions of gold, as money, as jewelry, and as an industrial commodity.
Addressing the Meeting today, Haruko Fukuda, CEO of the World Gold Council, said that the past few months had given a stunning demonstration of gold's value as an investment and that the World Gold Council was helping to influence the huge demand for gold triggered by the Japanese anxiety about the safety and soundness of their banking system.
Meanwhile a new study with the World Gold Council by Bain & Co. had identified, researched and documented a longer term strategy to promote gold to individuals and institutions worldwide. "In this field as in so many others, new products need to be developed and designed to meet today's rapidly changing marketplace and we have made considerable progress along this road", she said.
In discussing gold's continuing role in the world's financial markets and as an official reserve, Miss Fukuda said that governments continue to hold gold broadly for the same reasons as private individuals - because it is money that can be relied on in the long term.
However, she warned of the threat to gold's role as an official reserve asset and said that the World Gold Council vigorously counters that threat at every opportunity. "The latest threat comes from an unexpected quarter - Germany's Bundesbank - but that too, I hope, has been contained," she said, adding that the markets muted reaction arose out of its growing confidence in the Washington Agreement on Gold and that this underlined the importance of securing a renewal of the agreement on appropriate terms.
With regard to jewelry, the World Gold Council has had to remind consumers of gold's enduring values. Miss Fukuda said: "In a major advertising campaign launched in the US and Europe last year, we responded to the marketplace and began to move it again in gold's favour. With our latest development of that campaign we really are changing the way millions of people around the world think and feel about gold."
"Gold", said Miss Fukuda, "has adapted to changes in the marketplace and the World Gold Council is helping to find new roles for it in today's market, as money, as jewelry, and as an industrial commodity".
"Looking to the future, we recognize the constant requirement to innovate and refine the mode of our communication. To respond to the challenges of a rapidly changing environment in the gold industry, the World Gold Council is this year embarking on a strategic study of how gold producers can best promote gold collectively," she said.
The World Gold Council is an international organization formed and funded by leading gold mining companies from around the world to promote and expand the market for gold and gold products through a research-driven approach to market and product development.
Editors Note
A full transcript of Miss Haruko Fukuda's speech is available upon request to Marston Webb or by visiting our website at www.marstonwebb.com.
--30--kf/ny* sw/ny
CONTACT: Marston Webb International, New York
Victor Webb, 212/684-6601
marwebint@cs.com
or
World Gold Council, London
Neville Wells, (011 447785) 903401
Neville.wells@wgclon.gold.org
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