TRAINING OF INDIGENOUS PERSONNEL IN DIAMOND CUTTING AND POLISHING
HON NDUNA asked the Minister of Mines and Mining Development to explain the progress that has been made so far in the training of indigenous personnel in diamond cutting and polishing as part of the drive towards value addition and beneficiation.
THE MINISTER OF MINES AND MINING DEVELOPMENT (HON. W. CHIDHAKWA): Sometime last year, the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development proposed to Government the introduction of a package of incentives to encourage companies that may want to train Zimbabweans who go into value addition of diamonds. As a result of that, a Chinese company has since come and it has recruited some 25 students who will be in China for one year. Over the three years, they will train 300 Zimbabwean students in cutting, polishing, valuation of diamonds and this programme is being done jointly with our School of Mines and so aspects of the programme will also come from our School of Mines and a Department for diamond cutting valuation will be established at the School of Mines in Bulawayo. I thank you.
HON. CHIMANIKIRE: My supplementary question is, are the Chinese the best trainers, bearing in mind the fact that one of their companies was responsible for the disappearance of $15 billion?
HON. CHIDHAKWA: Mr. Speaker Sir, this company that I refer to is one of the largest value adding companies, not just in diamonds but also in platinum and gold jewellery. This company has over 2 000 retail outlets of jewellery in Asia and building another 2 000 stores through which they wish to distribute their jewellery. It is based in Hong Kong and has a very strong work ethic.
This however, does not mean that this is the only company. We are actually in negotiation with other companies that are willing to assist us with cutting and polishing to benefit from the package of incentives. Besides the training, the other thing that we wanted was access to markets, so we will approach those that we think will give us not just the training but access to markets for jewelry products once we start manufacturing.
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