Indian ambassador to Qatar Sanjiv Arora and wife Chhaya Arora meeting prominent Qatari businessman and jeweller Hussain Alfardan in the Alfardan Jewellery pavilion at the Doha Jewellery & Watches Exhibition on Friday. The envoy also visited all diamond entrepreneurs from India and businessmen of Indian origin who participated in the week-long expo. PICTURES: Jayan Orma
By Ramesh Mathew/Staff Reporter
The week-long Doha Jewellery & Watches Exhibition, one of the most glamorous events in the country, concluded successfully last night at the sprawling Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC).
After participating in the expo, many of the business visitors and participants have flown to Hong Kong where a major exhibition will be held over the next few days.
The Doha exhibition was held at the QNCC for the first time.
Speaking to Gulf Times on the last day of the Doha event, some of the participants said while the QNCC is a remarkably good facility to host events of this magnitude, the long distance from the city “acts as a deterrent for some visitors”, especially when the main road leading to the place faces congestion throughout the day.
As a result, claimed some of the participants, their business was “not as good as some of the previous editions and that there were fewer visitors to the pavilions this time”.
Expressing hope that the event would be held at the under-construction convention centre near City Center Doha next year, some of the visitors felt that the new venue would be able to attract more visitors and business customers in the coming years.
Speaking on the experience at the exhibition, the representative of a prominent Antwerp-based company with a long list of regular clients in Doha said: “While the business of diamonds has been shooting up at the global level over the past 4-6 months, customers of the region seemed to be too cautious in making investments this time.” He, however, hoped that local investors would continue to invest in diamonds and stones “as many of them are flush with funds”.
While some of the regular participants, especially those from the Far East, reported good local patronage, some others differed. “Our expectations were much greater but things did not go the way we had hoped,” said a diamond entrepreneur, who felt that the expo’s duration should be limited to 4-5 days. “Most exhibitions across the world last either four or five days.”
Italian companies, some of which had arrived with pieces that could easily suit the wallets of local customers, said they were looking forward to larger crowds but this time their numbers were not that big as compared to the previous years. “Whether a customer buys a piece or not is not that important to many of us. However, there needs to be a large number of visitors as it is through such groups that our creations get better visibility among customers,” explained a businesswoman who has participated in most editions of the Doha expo.
On the other hand, an official of Nirav Modi - one of India’s fast-emerging diamond houses - said they were happy with the response they received in their first year of participation in the Doha expo. “Even though we knew that there are many resourceful investors in Qatar, we never knew it before that there was such a strong following for diamonds and other stones among the local people,” she said, explaining the reasons for deciding to come back to Doha next year. The company’s pavilion in the Alfardan Gallery was a big hit among visitors and one of the highlights was its unique ambiance.
Some of the makers of limited-edition luxury watches felt somewhat happy with the businesses that they got. One of them who came with Qatar-themed watches said his company’s creations were well-received by the locals and this has prompted him to come here next year as well.
Meanwhile, some of the participants left for Hong Kong on Friday, leaving their team members behind in Qatar to carry out transactions on the final day of the exhibition.
