Sunday Sep 29, 2024
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Tuesday, 16 July 2013 01:13 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Senior VP Basu was addressing Minister Rishad Bathiudeen, Minister of Industry and Commerce, when his 17-member delegation made a courtesy call on Bathiudeen. Basu is currently on an eight day-long, in-depth trade mission to Colombo.
Basu’s Bengal National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BNCCI) is India’s oldest and first-ever indigenous chamber in India. The 126-year-old BNCCI is an ISO 9001:2008 certified chamber, with Indian and international ‘power brands’ as its members, including Dunlop India, India Steamship, Indian Oil Corporation, Hindustan Petroleum Corporation, Castrol India, Hyatt Regency Kolkata, Berger Paints India, Indian Institute of Management (Calcutta) and Birla Tyres.
“We are impressed with Sri Lanka’s improvements in its new stage. Though we know Sri Lanka well, we believe it is time that Sri Lanka becomes well known in Eastern and Far Eastern Asia too. Your industrial, tourism and even ayurveda potential should be made known to the Eastern parts of the world. In this light, we invite Sri Lanka to the 2013 Industrial India Trade Fair series in Kolkata to be held this December,” said Basu.
“This series in Kolkata is the only such large scale international event in North Eastern India, if not in the whole of India. We have also nominated Sri Lanka as our ‘partner country’ in the forthcoming 26th Industrial India Trade Fair in which more than 12 countries, including Japan, are scheduled to take part. The forthcoming fair focuses on SME industries and machinery and technology as well.”
Sandip Sen, former President of BNCCI and Chairman of forthcoming 26th Industrial India Trade Fair, while addressing Bathiudeen, said: “We have experienced your tourism and it has high potential but is not well known in the eastern and north eastern parts of the subcontinent either. Kolkata is the gateway to Eastern and North Eastern India and also the Bengali people there are the biggest tourists and travellers in all of India – they always travel both locally and internationally.
“In fact, almost all countries in Eastern Asia have active tourist promotion offices located in Kolkata, except Sri Lanka. I suggest you to consider establishing a tourism promotion office in Kolkata. We also see tourism, power and energy and the gem and jewellery sectors of Sri Lanka as very attractive sectors for us to invest in.”
“We thank you for this partnership invitation and it’s a great honour for Sri Lanka. We look forward to participating in this event with a strong Lankan delegation,” said Bathiudeen, in response to Basu, and added: “In our new development phase, thanks to President Mahinda Rajapaksa, tourism has surged and now we are aiming at 40,000 rooms by 2016 for the targeted 2.5 million arrivals by then. I believe that we can start with a Lankan tourism road show in Kolkata, and I shall inform our tourism promotion officials of your suggestion.”
“We also invite Indian investors to consider our tourism and gem and jewellery processing sectors and we are happy about your interest in them. In the aftermath of our recent meeting with Indian Commerce Secretary SR Rao, we are now working to implement bilateral trade decisions in a very practical way.”
Also present along with Bathiudeen was Anura Siriwardena, Secretary to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce.
Even other members of the Indian delegation expressed their satisfaction with Sri Lanka’s recent overall improvements.
“In recent years, Sri Lanka has improved vastly,” said Bani Roy Chowdhury, the Chairperson of the Tourism Committee of BNCCI. “As a tourism industry person, I visited this country several times. Each time I have been impressed by its new developments and its many new improvements.” According to the Department of Commerce of Sri Lanka, bilateral trade between both countries totalled $ 4.087 billion in 2012 and in the January-April 2013 period alone stood at $ 1.17 billion. During 2008, India allowed the duty free entry of three million pieces of apparel products from Sri Lanka without any restrictions under ISFTA and in April 2013, the quota was increased to eight million pieces.
