The 64th Annual Meeting of the Israel Diamond Exchange was held on Tuesday in the Trading Hall in the presence of the IDE president and management of the bourse, senior members of the exchange, honorary presidents of the exchange, and thousands of bourse members.
IDE President Yair Sahar opened the meeting with a minute's silence in memory of those bourse members who have passed away in the past year since the last annual meeting and read out their names.
IDE General Manager Moti Besser, who chaired and ran the meeting, presented the main issues facing the exchange and asked the chairman of the Tax Committee, Shlomo Yuval, to present to the exchange members.
Yuval congratulated the audience members and gave information about his committee's work, which included intensive negotiations with the tax authorities and reaching agreement with them, for the first time in the IDE's history, for members to submit retroactive calculations for the years 2009-2011. He also spoke about the advantages enjoyed by Israeli diamantaires in the international trade and about the challenges facing the diamond sector. Yuval called for solidarity in the exchange following the elections for president and officers, and proposed setting up a committee for imports, exports and trading of rough from all over the world.
Deputy Chairman of the Directors of the Israel Diamond Exchange Enterprise, Ben-Tzion Fuzailoff, praised the work of the bourse' staff and the different committee chairmen for the benefit of all IDE members.
Yair Sahar praised the bourse's members, thanked the management for their work, and presented the management's report which included a detailed account of the bourse's work over the past two years in a wide range of activities, including security and tags, streamlining and adding to the bourse's revenues, the work of the Diamond Association, dealing with income-producing assets, the prototype of the bourse complex, community activity, promotion of female members, deepening foreign ties, leading new strategic business moves, and progress in negotiations with the tax authorities.
The representative of bourse tenants, Arnon Yuval, spoke about the activity that has taken place for the members, including improving infrastructure and freezing fees and called for a strengthening of cooperation between the president and management that will be elected today (Wednesday).
Chairman of the Control Committee Shaul Yitzhaki spoke on the main points of the committee's work since the last annual meeting.
At the end of the presentations, the meeting was opened up to members for discussion and candidates for the IDE presidency – Yair Sahar and Shmuel Schnitzer – presented their manifestos.
