On 21 December the RPMG-99 Organizing Committee held a meeting with regard to the organization of the Third International business conference "Russian precious metals and gemstones markets" in November 2000 in Moscow. It was decided to hold the conference on 1-3 November 2000.

In order to make the work of the Organizing Committee more effective and to hasten the process of decision making there was a Working Group established, headed by Mr, V. PISKUNOV, Co-Chair of the RPMG-2000, President of the Precious metals and gemstones' market informatization branch at the International Informatization Academy.

The organizers of the Conference are the Upper Chamber of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, the Moscow city Government, the International Informatization Academy, the Association of the Russian banks and Commercial bank "Lanta-Bank". The RPMG-2000 Organizing Committee confirmed its willingness to stimulate the interest of, Russian and international, state, commercial, scientific and social institutions as well as that of private individuals, in the further integration of the Russian precious metals, gemstones. Jewellery markets into the world system.

Among the conference participants the Committee expects to see the heads of the Ministries, the largest investment companies, banks, enterprises and organizations from Russia and other CIS states as well as from Australia, Austria, Great Britain, Germany Holland, Greece, Israel, Italy, Canada, China, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, USA, Turkey, France, Czech Republic, Switzerland, Sweden, South Africa, Japan and other countries.

The aim of the RPMG-2000 is to analyze the development of the Russian precious metals and gemstones market (PM/GS) during the last year and to specify further opportunities for its liberalization, as well as to assist in beneficial cooperation between Russian and foreign partners.

The RPMG-2000 participants will be informed on the Russian government structure's response to the Recommendations of the RPMG-99. They will have an opportunity to exchange their views with regard to new prospective that were opened at the Russian market. The conference participants will also evaluate the work of the Organizing Committee-2000 and its Working Group, who will be responsible for the advancing the RPMG-99 Recommendations to the state authorities during the period until November 2000.

With the view to further develop the Russian market economy the RPMG-2000 participants will continue their discussions with regard to the problems in mining of precious metals, processing of primary and secondary materials and refining, the development of diamond complex. Furthermore, specific business proposals for Russian and foreign companies aimed at mutually beneficial cooperation will be introduced and discussed during the conference.

One of the ways to integrate the Russian PM/GS market to the civilized world system is the wide informatization, which becomes possible with the application of the new information technologies. In view with the above, the RPMG-2000 Information Center (headed by I.DANILOV) opened a special server: Precious metals and gemstones market, at:

www.rdmk.ru
There, you can obtain information regarding the current situation in the world and the Russian precious metals, gemstone and jewelry markets, to participate in the discussion concerning the today's situation and future developments of these markets, to exchange the views with other RPMG participants and propose your own ideas to the topics in question.

The structure of the server will reflect all perspectives of the RPMG-2000 work, including the issues on mining, processing, application, trade, investment, legislation and information channel. Under each of these headings there will be a conference - an interactive part, where you can ask questions and receive the answers, as well as to discuss the problems of the industry with other market participants or to introduce your company to the others.