Sri Lanka clinches new Flemish investments

Belgium, whose bulk of imports from Sri Lanka are diamonds revealed that it is buoyant on emerging investment opportunities in Sri Lanka

“Prospects for many Flemish firms are bright in Sri Lanka.

We are buoyant and happy to say that two more Flemish Industrial regions are sending investment delegations here before the end of this year,” an upbeat Jos de Clerqc said, the trade and investment commissioner of ‘Flanders investment and trade’ the official Government investment agency of Flanders, the industrious Belgium province renowned for its logistics hub Antwerp on 30 May in Colombo.

Commissioner Clerqc was apprising Minister of Industry and Commerce of Sri Lanka Rishad Bathiudeen on 30 May, during a special reception held for the strongest Belgium investment delegation (freshly arriving from its Bangladesh tour) in town in recent history, which was originally announced by Minister Bathiudeen when he was touring the Flanders Region, Belgium on 20 December 2012.

During Minister Bathiudeen’s December 2012 tour of Belgium, Minister President of Flanders Region Kris Peeters accepted an invitation, extended by Minister Bathiudeen to ‘Flanders investment and trade’ the official Government investment agency of Flanders, to send an investment delegation to Sri Lanka in May 2013.

Among the Flemish firms in the 30 May delegation were Anglo Belgian Corporation (infrastructure, energy and transport), Tractebel Engineering SA (infrastructure, port, water and rail), Orfit Industries NV (health), UNIGOM NV (rubber tyre), Dredging International NV (ports, renewable energy), PACKO Inox NV (food, agriculture and diary), Prospex bvba (consultancy), Poly Vision NV (education), BESIX (construction), and Roam Chemie NV (chemicals).

“The Balgium firm ‘Tractabel Engineering’ has found a promising entry into Sri Lanka while two Belgium firms already operating here have decided to further expand their investments. These two firms are the construction firm BESIX, and United Tobacco Processing in Sri Lanka the sister firm of J. Cortès Cigars, prime cigar producer in Belgium,” Commissioner Clerqc revealed and said: “Now I also like to intimate the arrival of two more investment delegations from Belgium somewhere in November-a delegation from Wallonia region, well known for hi-tech and clean tech and also a delegation from Brussels region, well known for financial services.”

Minister Bathuideen said: “I warmly welcome the Belgium investment delegation at a time we are experiencing an economic upswing,” in his well-received address to the delegation. “Since 2005, the total bilateral trade has grown by 64%, rising to US$ 826 million by 2012. Diamond has been the main export from Sri Lanka to Belgium in 2012 taking 52% of exports. I am pleased to note that such leading Belgium companies, as United Tobacco Process Ltd., CFE Ltd., BESIX, are already successfully operating in Sri Lanka.

“And I have experienced the strong industrial capacity of Belgium when I visited the Flanders region last year,” Bathudeen said and added: “FDI to Sri Lanka plays a key role, since Sri Lanka is now a middle income country. We welcome committed and promising Belgian investors to our priority sectors of investment which are tourism and leisure, infrastructure, knowledge services, utilities, apparels, export manufacturing, export services, agriculture, and education. I would also encourage investments in low cost energy and renewable power generation projects as well.”

Bathuideen also added “I am pleased to say that Sri Lanka has become the highest ranking country in South Asia in the Doing Business Index, which rose to rank 81, in 2013 from rank 89 in 2012. I am pleased to say that we are now targeting rank 30 by 2016.”

Representatives of Tractabel Engineering, BESIX, and United Tobacco Processing/J. Cortès Cigars confirmed new and additional investments to their local operations but withheld from stating exact values. “Our new investment expansion here will be in the million Dollar range,” Besix’ Resident Manager for Sri Lanka Paul Callebaut said.

United Tobacco Processing CEO Emmanuel Blomme said: “Our investment here already exceeds Euro 15 million. We have decided to double our Sri Lanka output capacity in our B2B segment and recruit at least 1,000 more to our BoI operations. We want to double our cigar-cuts output to two billion per annum,” Blomme said.

“In addition to the 250 million cigars produced in Sri Lanka destined for Europe, United Tobacco Processing’ also currently supplies one billion cigar cuts to various Cigar manufacturers around the globe. It is this B2B capacity we are strengthening,” Emmanuel revealed.