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Gold/Mining/Energy : SOUTHERNERA (t.SUF) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Peter Bourgeois who wrote (6200)	8/30/2000 9:34:48 AM
From: eyewatch	Respond to of 7235

Pick this up on the Aber thread 08/30 4:49A Shanghai Eyes Opening Planned Diamond Exchange By Mid-Oct SHANGHAI (Dow Jones)--Officials in Shanghai hope to open China's first diamond exchange by mid-October, although they still don't have an agreement with their foreign partners and China still hasn't lowered its 34% tax on diamonds. As it currently stands, Shanghai might open the exchange even without a foreign joint-venture deal, said Wang Zijuan, an official at Shanghai Lujiazui Development Group Co., which would set up the exchange. "We can first set up the exchange while continuing to negotiate," she said. A Shanghai official, Jiang Shangzhou, who is a department head at the city's economic commission, confirmed Wang's account but declined to provide added information. Still, the whole idea behind setting up an exchange in the first place was to encourage foreign investment in China's diamond sector. According to the city's official action plan, a diamond exchange could create as many as 100,000 jobs within 10 years and generate eventual sales of US$5 billion. City officials have been negotiating for years with several would-be foreign partners, in an effort spearheaded by U.D.I. Ltd., which is part of the Eisenberg group of companies in Israel. The late Shoul Eisenberg, who lived in Shanghai in 1938 as a refugee from Germany, first proposed setting up the Shanghai Diamond Exchange in 1995. "The original idea was to provide jobs and bring in a polishing industry," said Tommy Mozes, general manager for U.D.I. China, citing the diamond-processing centers in Bombay as a model. The foreign partners had wanted two-thirds control of the diamond exchange, "but now we'd settle on one-third," Mozes said. Since world diamond producers would want not only to process stones in China but also sell them here, several have said they'd need lower taxes and freer trade. Diamonds are currently subject to import tariffs, value-added taxes and consumption taxes that add up to 34%. Under the current plan, taxes would be waved for stones traded on the exchange but not for stones that are then sold in China. Diamond jewelry sales in China were US$450 million in 1998, up 55% from 1995, according to industry giant De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd. (DBRSY). -By Stephanie Hoo, Dow Jones Newswiresstephanie.hoo@dowjones.com Also, of interest in the WSJ, the story on Canadian stocks on the front page of the "C" section. PHIL