Saturday Nov 16, 2024
Saturday Nov 16, 2024
Thursday, 17 July 2014 01:45 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
ITC Senior Officer Labbe was addressing the kick-off session of the four-day ‘Performance Improvement Roadmap for Sri Lanka’s EDB by ITC’ program held on 16 July at EDB Auditorium, Colombo. Also joining the session were EDB Chairman/CEO Bandula Egodage, EDB DG Sujatha Weerakoone, EDB ED Dr. Yousuf Maraikkar, and directors and management staff of EDB.
Accompanying Senior Officer Labbe from Geneva were ITC Senior Advisor, Trade Support Services Miyoba Lubemba and ITC TSI Strengthening Expert Diana Orejas.
ITC is a subsidiary of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) providing trade-related specialised technical assistance to exports of various economies-specially transition economies.
Among its other aims are making businesses in developing countries more competitive in global markets, speeding economic development and contributing to the achievement of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals. In 2010, ITC implemented a business survey in Sri Lanka in collaboration with ‘Lanka Market Research Bureau Limited (LMRB)’.
“The identities of the 30 countries of the benchmarked index are kept confidential by ITC. However, let me say that among the top 10, where Sri Lanka too is now placed, are countries with high economic development and social rankings – such as from the influential global grouping of Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD),” said ITC Senior Officer Labbe.
“This assessment on Trade Promotional Organisations such as EDB is not about external pressures but about their internal processes so that external pressures are well confronted. Trade Support Initiatives (TSIs) of ITC have shown positive results towards boosting RoIs of TPOs-for instance one dollar of TSI investment has shown $ 27 return for Canada. The unbiased method to check performance is benchmarking. Among ITC successful benchmarking initiatives have been MAROC EXPORT (Morocco), PALTRADE (Palestine) and APEX BRAZIL (Brazil).
“Currently ongoing efforts are Sri Lanka’s EDB, Apex Burkina (Burkina Faso) and ZDA (Zambia). EDB has done quite well in International Trade Centre’s 2012 Lanka EDB benchmarking test. EDB has come to sixth spot among 30 national trade promotion organisations across the world, benchmarked by us-the International Trade Centre under WTO and UNCTAD. EDBs score in our 2012 study is above average and the next level to move is 80% ‘High level TPO Performance’ category and then, finally to 100% - what we call ‘world class’. A top scoring institution like EDB has specially done well in making its product portfolio relevant due to its strong ‘Leadership and Direction’ measurement. But remember, trade promotion is not a monopoly – you need to continuously extend your efforts to be on top of things when it comes to the demanding world market.”
Addressing the occasion, EDB Chairman/CEO Bandula Egodage said: “Despite export success with record exports, government continues to closely focus on exports and achievement of $ 20 b exports goal by 2020 under the guidance of Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen. As a result, EDB enhanced its effort towards this goal. Performance Improvement and Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are key factors for the sustainability of any organisation, including the EDB. ITC is trying to match EDB with other TPOs across the world and upgrade its performance. Interaction within various divisions of EDB is the key to success in this. Now let’s run the extra mile.”
EDB DG Sujatha Weerakoone, thanking ITC for support, said. “ITCs initiative will help EDB to better focus on RoI of its resources. ITC has been giving EDB good support for some time. I have no doubts that the staff of EDB will extend their support towards this ongoing effort.”
