By Fatima Muhammad
JEDDAH — Jeddah Municipality has accepted a request to exclude gold workshops from moving to the industrial city, Saudi Gazette has learned.
Earlier the municipality had asked all gold workshops to move to the industrial city. But the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) requested the municipally to exclude gold workshops from the decision.
The municipality accepted the request allowing gold workshops to stay in the city limits under the condition that they should be located in commercial buildings and on main roads, and that they should be monitored and approved by a committee that has representatives from the General Authority of Meteorology and Environmental Protection, Ministry of Health, Ministry of Commerce and Investment, Civil Defense, the Forensic Identification Department, and Jeddah Municipality.
Deputy head of the precious metals and gemstones committee at the JCCI Ali Batarfi said that the Kingdom imports 59 tons of gold bars from Switzerland, 30 tons from UAE and 12 tons from South Africa.
There were more than 1,277 companies and associations working in this sector in 2015, of which 279 were in Jeddah.
Batarfi said that they are keen to collaborate with the public sector to enhance the investment environment, to study the demands of the local market, create collaboration with international markets, increase the awareness of both investors and consumers, enhance the presence of Saudi youth in this sector and create a specialized training institute for both genders to provide vocational training.
Among the challenges facing the sector is the presence of low-value gold standards in Jeddah, said Batarfi.
Speaking to Saudi Gazette, Faidi Al-Hashdi, head of Jeddah jewelers committee, said that they are still studying the possibility of constructing a center for all gold workshops to be located in one area. He said jewelry making charges in Saudi Arabia were cheaper than in other parts of the world. The charge for normal jewelry making in Saudi Arabia is SR150 while in other parts of the world it is SR350.
