Africa-Press – Botswana. Government and the Kimberly Process Secretariat have signed a host country agreement to formalise the terms on which the KPS will be hosted.
Representative of the host country, Minister of Minerals and Energy Mr Lefoko Moagi said the signing of the agreement was crucial as it detailed how the secretariat was going to operate.
Minister Moagi was speaking at the signing ceremony in Gaborone on Tuesday. The signing of the agreement follows Botswana’s appointment to host the secretariat after successfully competing against four bidders which included Austria, China, Russia and United States of America at the KPS plenary on November 2022.
Notably, the minister said he was happy that signing of the host country agreement would now operationalise the secretariat following Mr Bojun Tang’s acceptance of his appointment.
Mr Tang was chosen by consensus to be the first head of the first office of the executive secretary by the KP plenary in November 2022.
“We are delighted to have you here Mr Tang after accepting this appointment in March this year and now you are here in Botswana. And for everything else to start, we need to have the host country agreement, because it details how everything else at the secretariat is going to be conducted,” Minister Moagi said.
He added that they were looking forward to operationalising the secretariat in earnest owing to impending inter-sessional meetings and plenary in November.
Meanwhile, the Kimberly Process (KP) is an international and multi-stakeholder arrangement comprising governments, the diamond industry and civil society aimed at increasing ethical conduct in diamond trade and prevent conflict diamonds from entering the legitimate trade in rough diamonds. Since its establishment in 2003, KP had been operating without a permanent secretariat, largely due to the lack of consensus among participants on the modalities of establishing it.
The decision to establish the secretariat in Botswana, was therefore a significant expression of confidence the diamond industry had placed in the country’s governance of diamond mining.
As such, Minister Moagi said since inception, KP had also been a certification scheme that had assured the world and the global market that Botswana diamonds were ethically mined without using child labour and conflict free, adding “we therefore, want to maintain it that way”.
He added that with the advent of technology and other sources, the secretariat would be able to track where the diamonds came from to assure the whole world that Botswana diamonds were conflict free and could trade in them.
The minister thanked President Dr Mokgweetsi Masisi, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, KP membership and all stakeholders who had been instrumental in ensuring government’s success in hosting the KP secretariat in Botswana.
In a press release from the Ministry of Minerals and Energy, the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) KPS chairperson, Mr Ahmed Bin Sulayem congratulated Mr Tang on his successful nomination as the first ever KP executive secretary.
“Establishing the permanent secretariat was one of the core goals for the UAE’s Year of Delivery in 2024 and in addition to providing key momentum ahead of our KP inter-sessional meeting in May, we will ensure that the KP can continue to operate more autonomously and effectively in the long term,” read the press release.
For his part, Mr Tang, who arrived in Botswana and assumed office on April 14, said by hosting the KPS, the country had demonstrated its incredible capabilities in the Kimberly Process issue.
“Once again, the government of Botswana shows the whole world that Botswana still remains the nerve centre for rough diamond trade around the globe,” he said.
He added that by closely working together, the objective of the KP member states, of striving for an effective and dedicated secretariat, remained the same. In support of all the activities of KP, Mr Tang assured the minister that the incoming secretariat would work together to provide continuity, institutional memory, operational efficiencies, enhanced communications and exchange of information within the KP and other international organisations.
The KPS country focal person, Ms Susan Matlolela thanked Minister Moagi for his support and leadership, leading to the signing ceremony, saying his continued guidance would be pivotal in ensuring the work of the secretariat office was successful.
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