The conference will be host to Deputy Prime Minister of Angola Aguinaldo Jaime; South African Minister of Minerals and Energy Buyelwa Sonjica; Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz; Kimberley Process chairman Karel Kovanda; Sergey Vybornov, President of Alrosa; Gareth Penny, Managing Director of De Beers, and many other leading figures.

The highlight of the conference, the gala dinner organised for October 15, has an attractive guest list with H.R.H. Princess Mathilde of Belgium and H.E. Ellen Sirleaf-Johnson, the president of Liberia, as the guest of honor. Also, former pop star Sir Bob Geldof will be the guest speaker.

The theme of the 2007 conference has been inspired by the speech made by South African President Thabo Mbeki, on the launch his government’s beneficiation program, during the 2004 gala dinner. In 2007, the conference is expected to be entitled ‘Producers in transition: the changing industry dynamic.’ It will focus on the power shift, and in particular the emerging strength of the producer countries to capture more of the “value chain. With the demands of African diamond producers being met, the conference will deal with the burning issue affecting the worldwide diamond business.

Since its last diamond conference in 2004, the Antwerp World Diamond Centre (AWDC) is preparing for the fourth international diamond conference, slated for October 15-16, 2007.