Pakistani businessmen to explore SL potential

KARACHI: Sri Lanka is the next economic miracle success story emerging in Asia and Pakistani businessmen and investors should enter this promising market.

Consul General of the Republic of Sri Lanka in Karachi, D. W. Jinadasa said the Sri Lankan economy is expected to record growth at an astounding 8 percent in 2010, while the GDP per capita has more than doubled to over $2,000 in the last five years.

These developments had led international financial institutions like the IMF and the World Bank to categorise Sri Lanka as a newly emerging middle income country.

He said the bilateral trade pattern between the two countries is limited to traditional products and therefore the business communities of both countries should explore trade and investment opportunities available in each other’s countries.

Jinadasa said Sri Lanka was beginning to present tremendous emerging investment opportunities as the country had become a haven of peace, and investors from all over the world were keenly following developments in the island nation.  He invited Pakistani businessmen to visit Sri Lanka and see first-hand for themselves the opportunities that awaited them in areas such as agri-processing, dairy and agriculture, sugar, textile processing, cement, pharmaceuticals, information technology and the hotel industry. The tourism industry in Sri Lanka he pointed out was likely to grow at a remarkable level because tourism had seen a 50 percent growth in the last few months! staff report