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| Sunday, 10 November 2002 |
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Quest for Gold continues by Indunil Thenuwara Quest International Ltd., a multinational business conglomerate incorporated in the British Virgin Islands and headquartered in Hong Kong, plans to increase its presence in Sri Lanka soon. The group is already in the island as a major stakeholder in the Asian Hotels Corporation, which owns the Lanka Oberoi, Crescat Residencies and Trans Asia Hotel. GoldQuest is one of the top three players in the international numismatics industry. The four-year old company is one of the world's largest gold coin and jewellery distributors and its product range varies from numismatics and medallions to jewellery and watches that commemorate outstanding personalities, places and events. It has a customer base of over 450,000 in over 100 countries. "Foremost among our plans for Sri Lanka is setting up a call centre and a corporate relations firm. We plan to set up an office at the World Trade Centre shortly," said Vijay Eswaran, Managing Director of GoldQuest International Ltd., the flagship business of the Quest Group. Eswaran (42), a third generation Malaysian of Indian origin, expressed his enthusiasm about increasing the company's activities in Sri Lanka in a recent interview with the Sunday Observer in Colombo. "With the peace process on track, we are rather optimistic about the prospects for the country. We have confidence in the present government specially Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. The island has all logistics to become the hub of the Indian subcontinent. With peace on the horizon, the economy is poised to take off and we want to be a partner of this economy when that happens. If we did not feel welcome in this set-up, we would not be here," he said. He said that India still has some trade and economic restrictions while Sri Lanka has by far the most liberal environment in the region. GoldQuest has a strong presence in India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan and to a lesser extent, in Pakistan. It is looking at the Maldives as well. "If everything turns out well, we will have a presence throughout the SAARC region." "We feel that the Sri Lankan market has not been exploited to its fullest potential. What we have in the pipeline would only be the beginning and not the full extent of our activities. We adopt 'a basket of eggs' approach in any market and in Sri Lanka too, we will leave room for other businesses," Eswaran said. Among the company's immediate concerns is setting up a call centre as a joint venture with Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT). Company officials have already conducted discussions with SLT officials including Chairman Thilanga Sumathipala and the response had been very positive, Eswaran said. He further said: "We hope to cater to our customer base far and wide through this call centre. Sri Lanka is the logical place for such a venture. Apart from call management, we will also do email and SMS management and monitoring. This project is expected to get off the ground early next year. "At the initial stages, we hope to employ about 100 personnel at this centre. In large call centres in India, Malaysia and Singapore, between 1500 and 3000 staffers are accommodated. We hope to employ Sri Lankans on this project apart from using foreign expertise." The technical equipment for the project at the initial stage is expected to cost about two million US dollars. The investment would be increased to about five million US dollars within the next two years. The group is also seeking to establish a corporate communications company in Sri Lanka. This will be set up as a joint venture with Imagequity, the Quest International subsidiary which handles corporate communications or 'reputation management' as they call it. A local company has already been identified as a partner. Eswaran, however, declined to name this company. "We have also opened discussions with the Central Bank about our gold coin business. The company has invested about five million US dollars in the acquisition of shares in Asian Hotels Corporation. It plans to increase this investment by three or four times over the next two years. Eswaran said: "The Sri Lankan Government has done its best to attract foreign direct investment. Of course it can do better, but some things are beyond its control The country has tremendous potential for investors, but this should be made more evident. The region has some common barriers but Sri Lanka is the most promising." Quest International has seven subsidiaries in areas such as hospitality, holidays, travel, aviation and training. There are plans to increase the number of subsidiaries to 12. It is also in talks with a Middle East airline with seven aircraft about starting a small airline. GoldQuest is said to have the most active e-commerce site in Asia and a major part of its business takes place online. It recorded a turnover of US$ 100 million for the Financial Year 2002 while US$ 200 million is expected for FY 2003. It has a stake in one of the oldest and most renowned private mints in the world - the Mayor's Mint in Germany - and alliances with many private and government organisations throughout the world. The company has offices in nine countries. Eswaran describes GoldQuest as a 'quintessentially Asian company'. "We are physically based in Hong Kong, spiritually based in the Indian subcontinent and hopefully, futuristically based in Colombo." |
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