Council for Business with Britain hosts 11th AGM

The Council for Business with Britain (CBB) hosted its 11th Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Monday, 12 July, 2011 at the British High Commission in Colombo. John Rankin – British High Commissioner was the chief guest.

Welcoming guests to the event, Chairman CBB, Nick Nicolaou said, “As per the Annual Report, the Council is in excellent health with an increase in members from 139 to 151 during the year.

We were also able to generate surplus funds of Rs. 775k which has allowed us to carry out our responsibilities as well as make significant contributions to our CSR project – the English Language Teaching Programme. We continued with a programme of events during the year, which included Luncheon Meetings, special events, sporting and social activities. The theme was to present opportunities to members to gain a better understanding of economic sectors of prominence and how they could exploit them.”

Nick Nicolaou, Chief Executive Officer, HSBC Sri Lanka and Maldives, was re elected as the Chairman of the Council for the year 2011/2012.    Shirendra Lawrence, Managing Director, MAS Active (Pvt.) Ltd. was elected as the Vice Chairman of the Council. Meanwhile, James Yamanaka, Managing Director and CEO, Ceylon Tobacco Company PLC and Mohammed Ziauddin, Managing Director, Norfolk Foods (Pvt.) Ltd. were elected as the Hony. Secretary and Hony. Treasurer, respectively. The following were appointed as Committee Members for the year 2011/2012:

Romesh David, President, Transportation & IT, John Keells Holdings PLC.

Shah Rouf, MD, Aviva NDB Insurance PLC

Sarath Ganegoda, Director Hayleys PLC

Manesh Fernando, General Manager, Hilton Residence Colombo

Janet Ford, Head of UK Trade and Investment, British High Commission, Colombo

Tony Reilly, Director, British Council, Sri Lanka

Asoka Hettigoda, President, National Chamber of Commerce

Anil Wijesinghe, Chairman/Managing Director, AWS Institute of Education (Immediate Past Chairman, CBB)

The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce provides Secretarial services to the Council for Business with Britain.  The CBB has a diverse membership of over 149 companies, making it one of Colombo’s most prestigious networking business associations. To this end, the Council organises a series of events throughout the year for the benefit of its members, ranging from luncheon meetings with guests speakers on topical interest to sporting and social activities. The CBB have also continued to support the English Language Teacher Training programme, now in its fifth year and run on their behalf by the British Council in association with the National Institute of Education and the Ministry of Education. Aimed at improving the English language skills of pupils in rural schools, the programme concentrates on building the capacity of English language teachers so they can deliver lessons more effectively. Another dimension to this programme is that CBB members also have the opportunity to sponsor individual teachers in an area of their choice and share in that individual’s teaching progress. Hence the CBB is directly contributing to the Government’s stated aim of improving the level of English language literacy in the country.