Economic Summit to assess export potential

Thursday, 6 June 2013 02:04 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

The 14th annual Sri Lanka Economic Summit which is scheduled to be held from the 9 – 11 July 2013 in Colombo will have one of its sessions discussing Sri Lanka’s Export Strategy.

The Government policy framework has targeted to raise the rate of growth in exports to double that of GDP growth, but exports as a percentage of GDP have halved from year 2000 to 2012. The share of exports of Sri Lanka as a percentage of world exports has also declined over the years to reach 0.06% by 2011.

The basket of merchandise exports from Sri Lanka as well as our exports markets have remained largely unchanged over the last few decades. The foregoing situation and change in the global economic scenario, with Asia gaining ground over the West, require us to rethink our export strategy given the importance of exports to a small economy targeting to achieve sustained high economic growth in the future. Leading economists and key exporters have been invited to discuss and identify changes required to improve the current strategy to rejuvenate the exports sector in Sri Lanka.

The keynote note speaker of this session will be Australian National University Professor of Economics and UK University of Manchester Honorary Professorial Research Fellow, Dr. Premachandra Athukorala.

His research interests lie primarily in the fields of development macroeconomics, international trade and development, multinational enterprises and foreign direct investment, and international labour migration. At various times he has served as a consultant to the World Bank, ADB, ILO, UNDP, UNIDO, ESCAP and the Australian Agency for International Development. These assignments have resulted in work on Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Georgia, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

Dr. Athukorala will be discussing export development strategies pursued by developing countries that have been successful and compare with those that are being pursued by Sri Lanka at present and highlight the strengths and weaknesses in Sri Lanka’s policy framework and provide some recommendations as the way forward. Executive Director of Policy Studies Dr. Saman Kelegama, will be doing a presentation on ‘Trade agreements as a tool to access Markets’ followed by a panel discussion consisting of Tea Exporters Association Secretary General Niraj De Mel, hSenid Software International (Pvt.) Ltd. CEO Dinesh Saparamadu, Joint Apparel Association Forum Secretary General Tuli Cooray and Hayleys Plc Senior Economist/Strategic Business Development Deshal De Mel. The session will be chaired by Ceylon chamber of Commerce past Chairman Dr. Anura Ekanayake.

The Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2013 is the ultimate platform to gain a comprehensive understanding of the country’s economy, the investment climate and the diverse opportunities available for investors and businessmen. A large number of participants are expected from private and public sectors both local and overseas. For more information and registration contact the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce on (+ 94) 11 5588805 or [email protected]