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| Sunday, 02 March 2003 |
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From March 29 - April 3 : High profile IOR-ARC meeting in Sri Lanka Sri Lanka will assume the chairmanship of the Indian Ocean Rim Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC) and IOR Business Forum (IOR-BF) at its meeting to be held for the first time in Sri Lanka later this month. The meetings are scheduled from March 29 to April 3 and will be held in Colombo. Chairman National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka (NCCSL) Asoka De Z. Gunasekera will chair the IOR-ARC Business Forum meeting and assume duties as the chairman for one year and then hand over the chairmanship to the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC). The NCCSL and CCC, the focal points for the IOR-ARC Business Forum in Sri Lanka, are organising the IOR-BF Meeting. "We are expecting more than 200 delegates from all member countries. The chairmanship is presently held by Oman and rotates every two years within the member countries," said Gunasekera. At this year's meeting, the members will discuss the progress of the projects undertaken by them as well as the way forward. The projects include cooperation in standards and accreditation, development, upgrading and management of sea ports, tourism promotion and development, cross-border financial services, technology cooperation, IORNET and a comparative analysis on existing multilateral and regional economic and trade policy arrangements and processors. IOR-BF is the representative of regional commerce and industry within the IOR-ARC process and acts as an independent voice for businesses in setting the directions and priorities for cooperation. IOR-BF meets at least once a year. It implements the National Focal Point Mechanism, which appoints national focal points, i.e., country representative for each IOR-BF project, to ensure effective coordination and follow-up. Senior representatives from the Ministries of Interior and Christian Affairs, Tourism, Finance, Economic Reform, Science and Technology and Port Development and Shipping; Department of Immigration and Emigration; Sri Lanka Shippers Council; Customs Department; Sri Lanka Ports Authority; Ceylon Shipping Corporation; Sri Lanka Standards Institution; and Sri Lanka Freight Forwarders Association will actively participate at the BF meeting. The main objective of IOR-ARC, which comprises 19 Indian Ocean states, is to facilitate trade and investment in the region. Initially known as the Indian Ocean Rim Initiative, it was inaugurated in Mauritius in 1997 by six countries bordering the Indian Ocean - Australia, India, Kenya, Mauritius, Singapore and South Africa - and subsequently Malaysia. The current members of IOR-ARC are Australia, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, Iran, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Mauritius, Mozambique, Oman, Seychelles, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, Thailand, UAE and Yemen. The five new members - Bangladesh, Iran, Seychelles, Thailand and UAE - were admitted at the Council of Ministers Meeting in Maputo, Mozambique. Egypt and Japan were accepted as dialogue partners. China and the United Kingdom were accepted as dialogue partners at the Special Council of Ministers Meeting in Oman in January 2000. |
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