|
|
 |
 |
| Sunday, 7 December 2003 |
 |
|
 |
Business |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Brandix, Most Outstanding Exporter of the Year by Elmo Leonard Brandix (Pvt) Ltd, carried away the Most Outstanding Exporter of the Year Award, at the first, National Awards for Export Excellence(NAEE) 2003, conducted last week. Brandix, an exporter of quality garments, aiming to promote its brand name, was formerly known as Mast Lanka (Pvt) Ltd. The NAEE awards, the brainchild of Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Ravi Karunanayake will be an annual event. It was conducted by the Department of Commerce in association with the Ministry of Enterprise Development, Industrial Policy and Investment Promotion. It could emerge as the premier export awards presentation in the country. Since the Presidential Export awards ceased from 1994, the National Chamber of Exporters Awards, limited to its 450 members held sway as the sole premier exports awards competition. Minister of Enterprise Development, Industrial Policy and Constitutional Affairs, Prof G L Peiris said that the NAEE awards is taken to the grass root level and will include the small and Medium sector. This is evident from the categories for Export Promotion Villages, included in the event. "The health of the export sector is directly linked to the macro economy of the country," he said. Three awards were also made to foreign companies which purchased goods from Sri Lanka. Commerce Minister, Karunanayake drew attention to affluent countries replacing aid with trade. In this context, Minister of Power and Energy, Karu Jayasuriya said that the government envisage of the setting up of Free Trade Agreements with 31 countries comprising Thailand, Egypt, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Singapore and Malaysia. There was confidence that the delayed Free Trade Agreement with the United States would be a reality in the near future. The Free Trade Agreements set up thus far had benefitted Sri Lanka as statistics of exports and imports with India have shown; some people said that these agreements would find more imported products entering the country, Minister Karunanayake said. The three ministers said that it would be a benefit to the local exporter if a stable exchange rates were maintained. Minister Karunanayake proposed that a Sri Lanka EXPO exhibition, of the nation's exportable products be held, on the lines of the first EXPO exhibition which took place in 1992, be revived, when 500 foreign buyers visited the event. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security Produced by Lake House |
