Without specific date set, the 18th Mid-Year Gems Emporium will take place at the Myanmar Convention Center on the basis of competitive bidding, the sources said.

    Mid-year gems emporium is introduced in addition to the annual ones to boost the country's foreign exchange earning.

    In March this year, an annual gems emporium, which was the 46th,took place in Yangon, putting over 5,000 lots of jade among others.

    Around 2,300 foreign merchants mostly from China, China's Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, India, Italy, Britain, Japan, Australia, the United States and Canada attended the annual event which reportedly fetched 191 million U.S. dollars.

    Again in late June this year, Myanmar held a 13-day special gem show here, earning 292 million dollars.

    The authorities designated the proceeds from the sale of gems at these emporiums as legal export earning to encourage the private sector in the development of the gem industry.

    Myanmar started to hold gem shows annually in 1964, introducing the mid-year one in 1992 and the special one in 2004.

    Myanmar, a well-known producer of gems in the world, boasts ruby, diamond, cat's eye, emerald, topaz, pearl, sapphire, coral and a variety of garnet tinged with yellow.

    The government's Central Statistical Organization revealed that in the fiscal year 2008-09, Myanmar produced 32,921 tons of jade and 18,728 million carats of gems which include ruby, sapphire, spinel and peridot, as well as 201,081 mommis (754 kilograms) of pearl.