Botswana, the world's largest diamond producer, is interested in Indian-based training in the fields of diamond cutting and polishing, the Economic Times said.

"We are looking for increasing the number of slots for Botswana nationals to come for training courses here, especially in the diamond polishing and cutting sector," Botswana's High Commissioner Dorcas Ana Kgosietsile said.



Diamond production and distribution in Botswana is controlled by Debswana – a joint venture of South Africa government and diamond powerhouse De Beers. India is the world center of processing rough diamonds.

According to the report, the Botswana envoy also expressed her desire to increase her country's regarding India's potential as a diamond market: "it is the third largest consumer of diamonds after the United States and Japan. With global recession, the US and Japanese markets had gone down, but India has been relatively resilient. I have been telling people in Botswana that they should be looking at India seriously," she said.

As for the training, Kgosietsile said that "we have already started classes with 186 students for graduate and masters degrees."

"Ultimately,” she concluded, “I want to go towards a strategic relationship, where we look towards each other as friends and partners for any matter."