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WORLD GOLD COUNCIL CREATING NEW RELEVANCE AND IMAGE FOR GOLD
Australian meeting focuses on crucial Global Industry Issues
Melbourne, Victoria, April 17, 2002 - More than 150 gold industry leaders,
together with delegates and media from around the world gathered in Melbourne
today to attend the World Gold Council Annual Meeting, the first to be
held in Australia.
The meeting focused on a number of global industry issues, including
perception, demand and retention of gold and the liberalization of the
gold industry in developing markets, such as China and India. It also
considered the three functions of gold, as money, as jewellery, and as
an industrial commodity.
Addressing the Meeting today, Haruko Fukuda, CEO of the World Gold Council,
said that the past few months had given a stunning demonstration of gold's
value as an investment and that the World Gold Council was helping to
influence the huge demand for gold triggered by the Japanese anxiety about
the safety and soundness of their banking system.
Meanwhile a new study with the World Gold Council by Bain & Co. had
identified, researched and documented a longer term strategy to promote
gold to individuals and institutions worldwide. "In this field as
in so many others, new products need to be developed and designed to meet
today's rapidly changing marketplace and we have made considerable progress
along this road", she said.
In discussing gold's continuing role in the world's financial markets
and as an official reserve, Miss Fukuda said that governments continue
to hold gold broadly for the same reasons as private individuals - because
it is money that can be relied on in the long term.
However, she warned of the threat to gold's role as an official reserve
asset and said that the World Gold Council vigorously counters that threat
at every opportunity. "The latest threat comes from an unexpected
quarter - Germany's Bundesbank - but that too, I hope, has been contained,"
she said, adding that the markets muted reaction arose out of its growing
confidence in the Washington Agreement on Gold and that this underlined
the importance of securing a renewal of the agreement on appropriate terms.
With regard to jewellery, the World Gold Council has had to remind consumers
of gold's enduring values. Miss Fukuda said: "In a major advertising
campaign launched in the US and Europe last year, we responded to the
marketplace and began to move it again in gold's favour. With our latest
development of that campaign we really are changing the way millions of
people around the world think and feel about gold."
"Gold", said Miss Fukuda, "has adapted to changes in the
marketplace and the World Gold Council is helping to find new roles for
it in today's market, as money, as jewellery, and as an industrial commodity".
"Looking to the future, we recognize the constant requirement to
innovate and refine the mode of our communication. To respond to the challenges
of a rapidly changing environment in the gold industry, the World Gold
Council is this year embarking on a strategic study of how gold producers
can best promote gold collectively," she said.
ENDS
A copy of the full text of the speech follows.
Contact:
Neville Wells, World Gold Council:
Mobile: +44 7785 903 401
Crown Towers, Melbourne (Wed 17 April): 03 9292 8790
UK (from Mon 22 April): +44 20 7766 2758
neville.wells@wgclon.gold.org
John Gardner, Clarity Communications:
Mobile: 0413 355 997
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