Thursday, 22 January 2015 00:00
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Top Geneva delegation now in Colombo
$ 8 m capacity initiative taking off
EU is Lanka’s single largest market
Bilateral with EU at $ 3.2 b in 2014 Jan-Nov
As a new economic era dawned in Sri Lanka, the EU has lost no time and moved fast to enhance its engagement with the country’s global trade platform to advance it to the next level.
Sri Lanka’s trade with EU, the country’s largest export market, crossed $ 3.2 b in 2014, as revealed yesterday.
“This latest initiative matches very well with our new Government’s vision and is a great start! Therefore on behalf of President Maithripala Sirisena, I extend our thanks to the EC for interacting very quickly with us in this event as well as all our trade initiatives and issues,” said Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen.
Bathiudeen was addressing the European delegation from Geneva’s International Trade Centre (ITC) led by ITC Geneva Asia and the Pacific Chief-Office Xuejun Jiang at the EDB in Colombo.
Also present were
Department of Commerce DG R.D.S. Kumararatne and other DoC officials. The delegations also included top UNIDO officials from Geneva, among them UNIDO Associate Industrial Development Officer Quality, Standards and Conformity Unit Trade Capacity Building Branch Juan Pablo Diaz-Castillo.
“The Department of Commerce, the Delegation of the European Union in Colombo and the International Trade Centre (ITC) in Geneva are currently in the process of formulating a trade-related capacity building project, which will enhance the overall performance of the export sector of Sri Lanka. The proposed project, which is scheduled to implement from 2016, will be funded by the European Union. Under the Joint Commission’s Working Group on Trade at Brussels meet last year, possible EU assistance for capacity development was inquired into and the EU responded positively,” said Jiang.
He added: “Subsequently a proposal was followed through EU Embassy in Colombo. Now the resulting proposal is in the range of a Euro 2 to 7 million capacity development exercise in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka has picked ITC for as coordinator for the entire program. Other economic agencies of the country including Government agencies and various trade chambers are stakeholders in this exercise. The concept will be developed and implemented by Geneva’s ITC. The Department of Commerce is the local coordinator of the project. UNIDO is also extending its expertise. The new project is expected to commence within a year from now to span three four years.”
The EU is Sri Lanka’s single largest export market and has also been SL’s second largest trade partner for a long time. Total exports to EU in this year’s January-November provisional exports stood at $ 3.21 b – a huge 32% of the period’s total exports at $ 10.1 b. Total trade with the EU in 2013 was a steady $ 4.95 b, slightly rising from 2012’s $ 4.94 b.
“As I am given to understand by Department of Commerce DG R.D.S. Kumararatne, the European Commission has given Sri Lanka continued and strong support in this project as well as to boost our trade capacity in general,” said Bathiudeen. “I have been also informed that this consultation process only started very recently in October and already the work has moved to next phase. We are also thankful to ITC which is no stranger to my Ministry; ITC has already extended its support to the Ministry in 2012 in its EDB benchmarking test and more recently in 2014 July, formulating the ‘Performance Improvement Roadmap’ for EDB. I am pleased to note that our bilateral trade with EU in 2014 Jan-November stood at $ 3.2 b.”
In 2013, Sri Lanka’s exports to EU stood at $ 3.28 b, rising from 2012’s $ 3.15 b, while imports from the EU fell to $ 1.67 b from 2012’s $ 1.79 b. EU provides Sri Lanka with the GSP facility.
