State-owned diamond trading company founded

Government has established a state-owned diamond trading company. It will purchase, market and sell the ten percent to 15 percent portion of the production to which the state is entitled, through the new marketing agreement signed with De Beers in 2011. As the daily newspaper Mmegi reported the new Okavango Diamond Trading Company is expected to auction independently an estimated US$300 million worth of diamonds per year on the open market from Debswana's average US$3 billion-a-year supply. Under the 10-year deal, Botswana will buy ten percent of Debswana run-of-mine production and sell it independently through open tenders outside the traditional DTC framework. The government's portion will rise to 15% over a four-year period. (sadocc)