Man behind Lanka’s global Cinnamon branding says goodbye

Dr. Dan Lee, the architect behind global branding of Sri Lanka’s Pure Ceylon Cinnamon is leaving the country – having completed a very successful tenure in the country. “Dr. Lee has greatly contributed to our export promotion efforts and also Sri Lanka branding in his more than three year stay with us for which we thank him abundantly. We will surely miss his strong market insights,” said Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen.

Minister Bathiudeen announced this in the aftermath of his farewell call with Dr. Lee, outgoing Senior Economic Advisor and Senior Economic Advisor of Office of Economic Growth, USAID Sri Lanka.

During his three years and eight months tenure in Colombo, Dr. Lee closely worked with Minister Bathiudeen’s Sri Lanka Export Development Board and provided the services of US based technical experts on Ceylon Cinnamon Brand marketing strategy. In October 2011, Sri Lanka officially unveiled Pure Ceylon Cinnamon brand to global markets at the Anuga Trade Fair in Cologne, Germany. Last July Minister Bathiudeen announced that his EDB has successfully secured the coveted rights for Pure Ceylon Cinnamon trade mark in the EU market. “US market next,” he said. Dr. Lee, who parts with a $ 24 million project ‘gift’ to Sri Lanka, was involved in the efficient energy management systems in Sri Lanka’s coconut industry and overall technical assistance to Minister Bathiudeen’s Ministry on handlooms (in supply and market development for handicrafts by conflict affected women and youth in the north and east as well as supply and market development for handicrafts by war widows projects).

Dr. Lee, who also contributed significantly to many Private Public Partnership (PPP) initiatives, said,  “I will miss Sri Lanka. Our PPP initiatives created strong impact and our future strategy is to focus on the SME sector in this regard. We have already started the initiative with $ 24 million outlay. I also identified that there is strong need for micro-financing awareness and infrastructure in the country which will now be taken over by the new, incoming Director of USAID Sri Lanka, Paul Richardson.”

“We have undertaken an economic assessment of Sri Lanka’s SMEs to identify where USAID technical assistance is needed. I also realise that there is a profound lack of micro-financing awareness and infrastructure aspects in Sri Lanka. Also, Sri Lanka manufacturing needs to focus on energy efficiency as well,” said Richardson who comes from Iraq USAID. As the Deputy Director of Iraq USAID, Richardson was responsible for designing Iraq’s national agricultural strategy for the next five years.