Georgetown : The Guyana National Bureau of Standards (GNBS) will be moving to ensure that producers and retailers of gold jewellery adopt and enforce the now compulsory standards of providing purchasers’ information that deals with the karat and alloys used in perfecting the structure of their products and making them more malleable.
In 2010, Guyana adopted the specifications of gold in the jewellery sector as recommended through a CARICOM initiative. This was being applied on a voluntary basis; there was no compulsion on the jewellers and those who worked with gold for ornamental purposes to adopt these standards.
Speaking at his weekly post-Cabinet press briefing at the Office of the President, Head of the Presidential Secretariat, Dr. Roger Luncheon said today that henceforth producers and retailers would have a legal obligation to adopt these standards.
Cabinet was provided with a status report (from 2010 to present) by Minister of Tourism, Industry and Commerce (ag), Irfaan Ali who indicated that after a series of consultations and engagements with stakeholders in the retail gold sector, an understanding was reached in this regard and based on that, Cabinet decided to make the standards absolute and compulsory.
Dr. Luncheon explained that the decision to move from the recommended voluntary standards to compulsory standards is not based on any negative assessment of the four-year period. Instead, it is a way to ensure that visitors and tourists get value for money.
“Tourists like our yellow gold, we see this as a major branding of Guyana’s tourism product…it has a significant tourism appeal, our gold industry is a part of this appeal and we have to line it up in such a way to contribute in a positive way to the development of our tourism product…it is important for us to eliminate the possibilities for things to go awry,” the HPS said.
This CARICOM standard was developed to guide jewellers on the manufacturing of gold articles and to increase buyers’ confidence in the selection and purchasing of gold jewellery. It was approved by the 29th Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) in February 2010.
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