Models show award-winning jewelry items at the awards ceremony of the first national jewelry manufacturing contest on Tuesday, December 9, 2008 in Beijing. [Photo: CRIENGLISH.com]

The Chinese jewelry industry remains confident enough as many jewelers showed up Tuesday at an awards ceremony held in Beijing for the first national jewelry manufacturing contest.

The contest awards ceremony came against the background of the lingering global financial crisis, although the world downturn had already led to a 26 percent annual export drop of Chinese jewelry by October this year from Panyu, a world jewelry manufacturing base in southern China.

In the face of fiercer competition, Chinese jewelry companies must make innovations their top priority in designs and techniques. And it is the right purpose of this jewelry manufacturing contest, said Sun Fengmin, Vice President and Secretary General of China Gems & Jewelry Trade Association.

Although it has no direct link to jewelry sales, the contest can help raise awareness for product quality and build up competitive edges for China's jewelry industry on the global market, the panel of judges of the contest said.

Thanks to unprecedented development over the past 30 years, China has become one of the most important jewelry manufacturing bases in the world. China's jewelry industry pools together more than 1,500 jewelry companies, which employ some 300 thousand technical workers.

According to Peter Meeus, executive director of Diamonds from Dubai Multi Commodities Center, Chinese jewelry craftsmanship is of high quality, but still has a long way to go. Most Chinese jewelry manufacturers currently mass produce items. What they have to do at the moment is to be more competitive on global market and, in particular, lay more emphasis on individually crafted and higher-end jewelry productions.

Meeus' suggestion well coincides with one of the motivations of the contest. To give full play to the talent of China's jewelry craftsmanship, the contest included three categories: silver modeling, wax carving and diamond setting.

Participants who won the top prize in each category were awarded the laurel of "national skilled technician", as a gesture to encourage them to keep focusing on performance.

The national jewelry manufacturing contest will be held biennially to give a sustainable boost to China's jewelry industry.