El Salvador envoy visits CCC

The El Salvadorian envoy to Sri Lanka and India, Guillermo Rubio Funes visited the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) recently. He was accompanied by Honorary Consul of El Salvador in Sri Lanka, Nilrusha Pieris.

Guillermo was met by Deputy Secretary General, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, Ms. Alikie Perera, CEO, CCC Solutions, Chandula Abeywickrema, Senior Assistant Secretary General of the Chamber, Ms. Lilakshi de Mel and Chief Economist, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, Ms. Gaythri Gunaruwan.

The envoy said trade between Sri Lanka and El Salvadore should be increased, as statistics shows that trade between the two countries were at a very minimal level.

Sri Lanka's total trade with El Salvadore stood at around US$ 1 million in 2013 with the trade balance favouring Sri Lanka. El Salvador has not exported any item to the island nation during 2013.

El Salvadore mostly buys tea, spices, animal or vegetable fats and oil, edible fruit and nuts from Sri Lanka.

Ms. Alikie Perera stressed the importance of building links between the business bodies of the two countries to help explore two-way trade and investment opportunities.

She said the Chamber can organise the visit of a business delegation to El Salvador, if there is a party ready to facilitate 'match-making'.

"We generally send six to seven delegations to overseas destinations every year for three to four days to build up business links. We need a counterpart from the other side to make the match," she said.

She also said that El Salvadorian investors can use Sri Lanka as a platform to target the Indian market by using the Sri Lanka-India Free Trade Agreement.

Guillermo is the newly appointed ambassador to India and Sri Lanka and is based in Delhi.

He visited the Chamber, when he arrived in Colombo to present his credentials to President Mahinda Rajapaksa.