The 48th annual gems fair opened in Myanmar's new capital of Nay Pyi Taw on Thursday.
First Secretary of the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC) Thiha Thura U Tin Aung Myint Oo inaugurated the event at the Mani
Yadana Jade Hall.
On display at the fair are raw and cut jade, raw and cut gems, pearl, jewelry made of jade, gems and pearl, and sculptures.
Over 206 gem lots, 16,926 jade lots and 255 pearl lots are put on sale through competitive bidding systems.
The annual gems fair, which will run till March 22, is participated by about 4,000 merchants from 10 countries and regions as well as 3,000
local merchants.
Exhibitors include state-run Myanmar Gems Enterprise, Myanmar Pearl Enterprise and local private companies.
Sixteen chartered flights of the Myanmar Airways International (MAI) are ready to transport the gems merchants to Nay Pyi Taw directly from
China's southern city of Guangzhou.
In November 2010, a 13-day mid-year gems fair earned 1.4 billion U.S. dollars through sale of 9,157 lots of jade, 27 lots of gems and 237
lots of pearl as well as other jewelry.
In the 47th annual gems fair in March 2010, attended by 6,000 merchants, mostly from China's mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan, 500
million U.S. dollars of trade value was obtained mainly through sale of 7,000 jade lots.
A 155-ton jade stone claimed to be the world's second largest raw jade stone was showed at the event.
Myanmar started to hold annual gems fair in 1964, introducing the mid-year one in 1992 and the special one in 2004.
The latest figures show that in the first eight months (April- November) of 2010-11 fiscal year, Myanmar yielded 27,251 tons of jade and 9,573 million carats of gems as well as 80,123 mommis (300 kilograms) of pearl.
Myanmar is a well-known producer of gems in the world, and rich in ruby, diamond, cat's eye, emerald, topaz, pearl, sapphire, coral and a
variety of garnet.