After five intensive days of discussions on a wide-ranging set of issues facing the gemstone and jewellery industry, the 2016 CIBJO Congress concluded on October 28 at Yerevan in Armenia. The annual meeting of the World Jewellery Confederation (CIBJO) was attended by about 120 delegates from all over the world, among them sizable delegation from CIS states, including Armenia, the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The event was hosted by the Armenian Jewellers Association (AJA).

CIBJO, which celebrated its 90th anniversary at the Congress, currently has a total of 87 national jewellery and gemstone associations from 43 countries and representatives of 55 of the industry's most important commercial bodies as members.

Some of the highlights of the Congress sessions included discussions on :

• The problem of inconsistencies in coloured gemstone laboratory reports particularly those related to colour descriptions "Pigeon's Blood" for ruby and "Royal Blue" for sapphire, which when awarded often raise the price of relevant gemstones.
• Moving towards uniform treatment disclosure for coloured gemstones. (A proposal for such disclosure is likely to be tabled at the CIBJO Congress in 2017).
• The status of CIBJO's yet-to-be released Guide for Classifying Natural and Cultured Pearls.
• Amendments to the Coral Blue Book, which was ratified for the first time in 2015.
• Including descriptions of imitations, annealing, artificial products which are not crystallised and artificially crystallised stones in the Diamond Blue Book.
• Changes to regulations governing acceptable levels of nickel in jewellery, so as to prevent adverse reactions caused by jewellery when it comes in direct and prolonged contact with the skin.
• The online Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) course and the Jewellery Industry Summit.

During the congress, Moya McKeown, a carbon foot-printing expert awarded a certificates attesting to CIBJO's having retired carbon credits to offset its greenhouse gas footprint for all of 2015, and well as to two other companies that are part of CIBJO initiative - GECI and Osigem Srl of Milan - which retired carbon credits for 2014.

Pic Caption: Participants in the 2016 CIBJO Congress in Yerevan, Armenia