GIA to Shut Down Dubai Branch

RAPAPORT... The Gemological Institute of America (GIA) will close its Dubai office by the end of the year, ending a decade-long presence in the city. The organization has offered education programs, including its Graduate Diamonds course and distance-education lab classes, in Dubai since 2008, and opened a take-in facility to ship stones for grading in 2010. Both services will close by December 31, while the lab has already stopped accepting stones for submission, the organization said in a notice on its website."GIA continually evaluates all our global locations," the GIA wrote. "The difficult decision to close our Dubai operation to align GIA's resources with our mission priorities was made after careful analysis and consideration."As part of that ongoing review, the GIA opened a new laboratory in Antwerp this year, and one in Surat, India, in 2018. It also recently "significantly increased" the size of its Hong Kong lab, Stephen Morisseau, the GIA's director of corporate communications, noted in an email to Rapaport News.Image: Graders at a GIA lab. (GIA)