Sri Lanka-France Business Council appoints new council at sixth AGM

The 6th Annual General Meeting of the Sri Lanka-France Business Council was held recently at the French Trade Commission, Colombo 4.  Hugues Capet, Counsellor, Embassy of France in Sri Lanka was the chief guest.

Nirmali Samaratunga, Co. Chairperson and Joint Managing Director, Mackwoods Ltd. was unanimously re-elected as the President of the Council for the year 2010/2011.

Nirmali Samaratunga in her address stated that in the forthcoming year, the Council will further work towards strengthening bilateral relations between Sri Lanka and France.

Dilipan Tyagarajah, President of Alstom and Asanka Ratnayake, Director of CMA – CGM Lanka (Pvt) Ltd. were elected as Vice Presidents.

The following Members were elected to serve on the Executive Committee of the Sri Lanka-France Business Council - Tilak De Zoysa, Chairman & Managing Director of Associated Motorways Ltd; Senaka D. Amarasinghe, Managing Director of Carmart Limited; Jean Jung, Managing Director of Lafarge Mahaweli Cement (Pvt) Ltd; Murad Rajudin, Managing Director of Noyon Lanka (Pvt) Ltd; Shamil Mendis, Group Director of Delmage Forsyth & Company Ltd; and Mohan Pandithage, Chief Executive Officer/ Chairman of Hayleys Plc.

Bruno Viviez, Economic and Commercial Counsellor of the French Trade Commission; Nilupul De Silva, Director Promotions of Board of Investment; Jeewani Siriwardena, Director – Market Development of Sri Lanka Export Development Board; and Mahesh Amalean, Chairman of MAS Holdings Ltd. would also serve the Committee by invitation.

Membership of the council is open to individuals, partnerships, companies, corporations and other organisations engaged in trade, tourism or services with France or engaged in joint ventures with French organisations or interested in entering into or promoting trade, tourism, services or joint ventures with French organisations. The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce acts as the Secretariat.