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“Due to the support of well-trained, high quality healthcare professionals and availability of treatment centres as well as pharmaceuticals, we are witnessing the emergence of a new sector, medical tourism, contributing to our service exports,” said Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen.
Bathiudeen was addressing the launch event of the twin exhibition Intrad 2014 and Arogya 2014 at the Hilton Colombo on 12 February.
The event, to be held from 16 to 18 May in Colombo is being organised by the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka, with the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Ministry of Health, Department of Commerce, Ministry of Traditional Industries and Small Enterprise Development and EDB being co-organisers. During the event, Bathiudeen also launched the twin event’s official website, www.intrad-arogya2014.com.
“Intrad 2014 and Arogya 2014 are gaining gradual recognition among our business community as networking events for these growth sectors in Colombo. I am given to understand that Intrad is a wide ranging exhibition, including industries, imports and even exports. I commend your efforts to promote our exports through this series,” said Bathiudeen.
He added: “I am pleased to share the good news with you on our exports. As announced two days ago, earnings from exports during 2013 grew by 6.3% to $ 10.38 b. I am also pleased to note that industrial exports have led 2013 December growth on a year-on-year basis.”
Bathiudeen noted that in December, monthly industrial exports increased by 15.2% to $ 741 m. “These strong growth rates are reported at a time when we target national exports goal of $ 20 b by 2020 under the committed vision of President Mahinda Rajapaksa.”
NCC’s other concurrent exhibition, the Arogya series, focuses on healthcare. With only a per capita healthcare expenditure of $ 175, at first Sri Lanka does not appear to have advanced healthcare infrastructure similar to developed countries. However, this does not reflect the full picture, said Bathiudeen.
Studies show that around 15% of patients in Sri Lanka are foreign patients, such as from the Maldives. Meanwhile, two healthcare companies, Lanka Hospitals and Durdans, already have active programs for foreign medical tourists.
The Export Development Board, which is also partnering INTRAD and Arogya, believes that medical tourism is a promising service sector to drive Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange earnings.
“Developing a strong niche in medical tourism can result in a special tourism brand for Sri Lanka in the long term. Our tourism sector reported more than 1.2 million arrivals in 2013, according to the office of Sri Lanka Tourism. I wish to commend Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa for this growth. Since medical tourism is at the middle of several sectors, such as tourism, healthcare and inbound travel packaging, we believe that Public-Private Partnerships are a good way to strengthen this promising sector, so that our Government’s goals in tourism related hub synergies are leveraged well,” Bathiudeen stated.
National Chamber of Commerce Chairman Sunil Wijesinghe revealed that the twin events have progressed considerably during the last few years. “These two events in May in Colombo will have international participation like last year where Japanese, Chinese, Indian, and Pakistani delegates took part,” Wijesinghe added.
Meanwhile, NCC Snr. Deputy President Thilak Godamanna stated that some stalls of Intrad 2014 and Arogya 2014 had already been sold. “We hope this year’s event will be more successful than last year’s event” he added.
– Pix by Lasantha Kumara
