International gem lab for Lanka

Chairman, National Gem and Jewellery Authority Hasitha Tillekeratne has taken steps to meet a long-felt need of Sri Lanka's gem and jewellery industry by setting up a fully-equipped laboratory to examine gem stones in accordance with international standards.

Western countries such as the United States, Germany, Switzerland, Japan and Asia's Thailand already have such modern laboratories with the latest equipment. The lack of such a lab was a major setback for Sri Lanka all these years.

Although the NGJA does a thorough examination of gem stones before certifying them for export, most foreign buyers of gems expect certification of international standards.

For sometime the establishment of such a lab was in the minds of Sri Lanka's gem and jewellery traders who even set up a 'Laboratory Development Fund' for the purpose. Based on a decision made in the year 2000, 0.25 percent of the value of the gems exported from Sri Lanka from 2001 was credited to the account of the fund maintained by the NGJA.

Today the fund has reached nearly Rs.100 million. This will become the initial capital investment in setting up the new gem testing laboratory. It will be formed jointly by the State and the private sector and registered as a company under the name Lanka Gemological Laboratory (Pvt) Ltd.

The Secretary of the Ministry under which the NGJA functions, the NGJA Chairman and the NGJA Director-General and Chairman of the Gem and Jewellery Research and Training Institute have been appointed to the company's board of management. The NGJA Chairman was unanimously elected Chairman of Lanka Gemological Laboratory (Pvt) Ltd. at its first board meeting.