International compliance highlighted

The biggest Lankan trade, tourism and investment exposition concluded last week at Battaramulla, with US $ 1 billion in international business partnerships, according to an Industry and Commerce Ministry spokesman.

“There were more than 242,000 visitors including international buyers representing 66 countries - which led to 1,428 serious buyer visits and 101 promising B2B meetings,” the spokesman said.

The strategic thinking behind 'Reflection of Sri Lanka' was to leverage the opportunities provided by CHOGM as a platform to illustrate Sri Lanka’s capacity to integrate with global value chains.

The exhibition also highlighted the country’s logistic capabilities, high knowledge base, and its dedication to international compliance standards in trade and investment.The Sri Lanka brand push targeted the international decision and policy makers and investment influencers arriving for CHOGM.

According to the Reflections of Sri Lanka performance report, there were 242,176 visitors.

Of the 1,428 serious buyers, 566 were trade delegates (including foreign visitors), 247 were online registered buyers, 510 Business Forum delegates and 105 were new registrants. One hundred and one promising B2B meetings were concluded. Of the 195 negotiations for business partnerships, 37 were confirmed. There were positive outcomes in no less than 11 sectoral categories of which the leading categories were 'diamonds, gems and jewellery' and ‘soft toys and accessories’.

Eight hundred and ninety seven participants took part in a novel concept called Export Industry Seminars which focused on timely and specific themes such as aquaculture development, bilateral technology cooperation, greener coconut production and exporting under FTAs.

Of the international visitors, four business and investment delegations from China and one each from Italy, South Africa, UAE, and Iran met Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen at the exhibition venue. The Chinese, Italian, and South African delegations were afforded factory visits by the organisers. Among the many factories visited were tea, construction, paint, rubber, cables, seafood, and fruit and vegetable processing. Forty nine journalists from Canada, Dubai, Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, UK, France, Saudi Arabia, India, Philippines, UAE, Pakistan, Japan and China visited the exhibition.

Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa personally briefed international journalists from Japan, India, New Zealand, and Australia.

“The success of the event was illustrated by the visitor composition. This is strong proof of the confidence international trade, investment and business communities have of Sri Lanka’s new growth towards an upper middle income market economy,” the spokesman said. The mini-BOI one stop shop recorded almost 4,500 inquiries of which about 500 were from international business visitors. “Our stall was well attended from the start. We had sector specific BOI specialists immediately attending to every serious inquiry,” said BOI Senior Deputy Director, Media and Publicity, Jagath de Silva.

“There were many investment inquiries and among them, four large-scale investment inquiries positively stand out. The Spanish BOI wants to bring a strong investment delegation to Colombo for automobiles, machinery tools, and light engineering.