The Emirati city’s central location and favorable business conditions have helped push it to prominence as a trading center.
Amid the frantic schedule of Dubai Diamond Week in November, executives of KGK Group casually welcomed visitors to their new diamond and jewelry office. Nestled on the 51st floor of Almas Tower, home of the Dubai Diamond Exchange (DDE), the 1,200-square-meter space has a spectacular view of the Jumeirah Lakes Towers district and the ever-rising Dubai skyline.
KGK, a Mumbai-based manufacturer, expanded its presence in Almas to accommodate the distribution of polished diamonds from its non-Indian manufacturing facilities. Its factories in Angola, Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa account for 50% to 60% of the company’s production, says vice chairman Sanjay Kothari.
The connectivity to Africa, proximity to India, and ease of doing business all made Dubai the obvious location to facilitate that portion of KGK’s polished supply, he explains. The rough gets manufactured in the origin countries’ beneficiation centers, and the polished comes to Dubai “because you need a centralized location to then distribute,” says Kothari. It doesn’t make sense to ship the goods to India, as there is a 5% import duty on polished diamonds.
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