Without specific date set, the 17th 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 45th,took place, putting over 7,000 lots of jade, 300 lots of gems and 270 lots of pearl as well as a 30-kilogram jade block on sale.

Around 3,000 foreign merchants mostly from China, Chinese Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, India, Italy, Britain, Japan, Australia, the United States and Canada attended the annual event.

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.

Proceeds from the sale of gems at Myanmar's gems emporium are regarded as legal export earning. Of Myanmar's 6.043 billion U.S.dollars' exports in 2007-08 which ended in March, gems products stood the third after natural gas and agricultural produces with 647.53 million dollars, according to official statistics.

The government's Central Statistical Organization also revealed that in the fiscal year 2007-08 which ended in March, Myanmar produced 20,235 tons of jade and 22.668 million carats of gems which include ruby, sapphire, spinel and peridot, as well as 225,611 mommis (846 kilograms) of pearl. – Xinhua News