Herman Van Rompuy, former President of the European Council visited the Antwerp diamond industry last week and took keen interest in the Diamond Office, the body that controls all diamond exports and imports, and its role in the Kimberely Process that has helped keeped conflict diamonds out of the pipeline.

Van Rompuy concluded his tour by delivering the Keynote Speeach at a seminar organised by the Antwerp World Diamond Centre on the financial challenges facing the global diamond industry.

He said that this was his second visit to the diamond industry in Antwerp, and stressed that the world has changed drastically since he had last come nearly three decades earlier. Citing examples like the decline in oil prices, the exceedingly low levels of inflation and government drives to boost it to at least 2%, he pointed out that some changes could not even have been imagined a few years ago.

Describing the Eurozone as the biggest market in the world in terms of inhabitants and in terms of purchasing power, Van Rompuy spoke about tapping this potential, not through protectionism, but through free trade. He said it was imperative that governments within the Zone collaborated on various issues, particularly on exchange of financial data to curb tax fraud and tax evasion.

The former EC Pres said that investment was needed to drive growth, but the gap between savings and investment in Europe was a cause for concern. He ended his speech by calling for a concerted effort to ensure peace and harmony and combat terrorism, saying that it was imperative to uphold the values on which Europe was built to achieve this.