Persons purchasing gold jewellery throughout Guyana must be given documentation on the carat and alloy content of their purchase by the respective jeweller.
“From henceforth the gold jewellers and the retailers of gold Jewellery, would be under a legal obligation to make available, to purchasers of their product, information about the standards…gold and alloys in the product… they are now compulsory, enforceable and being applied by the investigators of the (Guyana National) Bureau of Standards,” Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon told a press conference yesterday.
Luncheon said that the decision was made after a convincing presentation byActing Minister of Tourism Irfaan Ali last Tuesday at Cabinet’s weekly meeting.
He explained that back in 2010 Guyana had adopted a Caricom initiative on the attributes of gold in the jewellery sector but that the standard was not enforced and jewellers decided if they wanted to follow.
Now the standard is compulsory and is a safeguard for the buyer, especially tourists, since Guyana prides itself in its gold products and markets this sector. “Tourists come here and they like our yellow gold. We see this as a major branding of Guyana’s tourism product and it is important for us to eliminate whatever possibilities that things go awry, that indeed visitors, tourists might not necessarily achieve or obtain what they paid for,” said Luncheon.
