Lanka-Vietnam Business Forum a success

An overwhelming enthusiasm was seen at yesterday’s Vietnam-Sri Lanka Business Forum held at the Sheraton Hotel, Hanoi, where President Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Ministerial team and the Sri Lankan business delegation took part.

The Vietnamese organisers expected only 120 Vietnamese businessmen to attend the forum.

However 180 attended the meeting to discuss bilateral investment opportunities.

Sri Lanka’s Investment Promotion Minister, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa stressed that the peaceful climate in Sri Lanka was favourable for foreign investors and invited Vietnamese entrepreneurs to invest in Sri Lanka.

He said the country was now politically stable and there are opportunities to invest in the rubber, automobile, agriculture and food processing, textile and apparel, electricity and aquaculture sectors.

Minister Yapa added that the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka offered incentives and tax holidays to prospective investors. Vice Chairman, Ho Chi Minh City People’s Council, Nguyen Thanh Tai claimed that Vietnam was a fast growing economy with a high level of foreign investment to the tune of US $ 168.4 billion in 2008, a remarkable figure.

He said his country had a population of 86.5 million with a 95 per cent literacy rate. The GDP stands at US $ 1,023 with a growth rate of 6.25 per cent.

Minister of Enterprise Development, Prof. G.L. Peiris expressed gratitude for Vietnam’s support to Sri Lanka at the UN and other international fora.

He said Sri Lanka was in the lead to support the recognition of a re-unified Vietnam in the early 1970s. Prof. Peiris said the business investment atmosphere in Sri Lanka was favourable and noted that the offer of bonds of US $ 500 million was oversubscribed 14 times, a significant feature for the Sri Lankan economy.

President Rajapaksa later visited the Cu Chi underground tunnel located 70kms from Ho Chi Minh City in the Northwest. It consists of a network of underground tunnels stretching for over 200km running through much of the country. These tunnels were constructed by the people of Vietnam to avoid enemy attacks during the war in Vietnam.

President Rajapaksa visited the ‘Museum of War Remnants’ established in 1975 in Ho Chi Minh City yesterday. The Museum contains documents and photographs illustrating the killing of civilians, spreading of chemicals, torturing of prisoners, and the effects of the war by foreign enemies.

Outside the museum are some rooms displaying cultural products of Vietnam.

The President was shocked by the photographs depicting atrocities committed by foreign invaders in Vietnam and the cruel and inhuman acts waged against the innocent people of Vietnam. He expressed his heartfelt grief over the inhuman incidents caused by foreign armies.