Ceylon Chamber of Commerce holds historic 175th AGM today
Thursday, 26 June 2014 00:34
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The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, which is celebrating its 175th year anniversary during this year, will hold its 175th Annual General Meeting today (26), at the Chamber’s main auditorium.
The AGM would be attended by the representatives of its nearly 520 member companies and its affiliate bodies. CCC was founded in 1839, with 13 representatives of the mercantile community holding a general meeting on 25 March of the same year, at the Corner House of Prince Street, which also adopted the rules and regulations of the Chamber.
Before the general meeting, a preliminary meeting was held on 28 February 1839, which has been taken part by C.D. Bartlett, J. Armitage, George Crabbe, Stephen Vertue and E.J. Darley, who drew up the rules and regulations, which formed the basis of the new institution.
Mackwoods Ltd. became the first official Member of the Chamber. From a modest start, the Chamber is now an apex organisation that brings together corporates, sector associations, regional chambers and bilateral business councils. Today, over 3,500 corporates are affiliated to the Chamber, representing a wide cross-section from blue chip public quoted companies to regional SMEs.
The first Chairman of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce was Joseph Read and the present Chairman is Suresh Shah.
Since its inception, the Chamber has sought to promote the national interest by way of private sector led economic growth. Thus, the Chamber strongly advocated the construction of the modern Port of Colombo and the Colombo-Kandy Railway.
In 1858, the Chamber urged the Government to accept India’s proposal to link Ceylon to the Madras Presidency Telegraphy line. This resulted in Ceylon being linked to the outside world by cable for the first time. Colombo, Galle, Kandy and Trincomalee were also eventually linked by telegraph.
The Chamber’s effort in improving postal and communications infrastructure continued with the issue of postage stamps in 1856, an outcome of a request by Chamber in that year.
The world’s largest and most efficient single origin tea auction – The Colombo Tea Auctions – had its origins in 1883. In 1898 the Chamber provided space for the auctions for the first time and continues to host it to this day. The auctions are conducted by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce in consultation with the Colombo Tea Traders’ Association under the By-Laws and Conditions of Sale of Tea by Public Auction and by Private Treaty of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.
The members of the Ceylon Chamber who have been with it for over 100 years will be recognised and felicitated at a gala event to be held on a future date.
