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| Sunday, 6 June 2004 |
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Sri Lanka ideal for European industrialists by Elmo Leonard Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Sri Lanka has many advantages over India and other countries of Asia, it was made out at the EU-Sri Lanka Partenariat, concluded in Colombo last week. Opening up industrial units in Sri Lanka to access the Indian market under the Indo-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement affords many logistical advantages over building industrial divisions in backward places in India, foreign investors present said. More than 75 European delegates from 15 EU nations met over 150 local companies picked by the European Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka (ECCSL) in what was described as one of the largest-business matchmaking events here. Besides economic advantages, the pleasantness of the Sri Lankan people is a major plus point, other investors said. Europeans are very discriminating about which country they work in, and Sri Lanka more than fills the void, other investors said, at a seminar, held in partnership with the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI). The small and medium European industrialists represented such sectors as agrofoods, educational services, infrastructure, IT and electronics, leisure and tourism, machinery and light engineering. Michel Machart, commercial director of Noyon Dentelle, France, said that his ability to communicate in English with workers in Sri Lanka was a great advantage. In China, India and other countries in Asia, he had faced grave communication problems. His industrial unit is an ongoing $40 million three-phase plant, based in Biyagama FTZ turning out lace, which commands the highest market share for this girdling used in women's underwear. Noyon Dentelle, which has offices in China, Japan, UK, Italy and Spain, finds Sri Lanka ideally suited to feed its 600 new designs per year, to garment manufacturers spread throughout Asia. This French family business set up in 1919 has a Euro 63 million turnover, Machart said. The Frenchman also said that Sri Lanka's banking system was excellent. The high cost of energy, its anticipated price escalation and the slow transport are minus factors however, Machart said. The advantages of investing in Sri Lanka for entry into the subcontinent under the trade agreement with India was discussed, and Thilak de Zoysa said that CEAT tyres made under Indian collaboration, here, competed with Indian-built CEAT tyres in the subcontinent carrying a 25 percent price advantage. |
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