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Thursday Nov 14, 2024
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Indian delegation currently visiting Sri Lanka, revealing the post-elections Indian view on the country for the first time.
“We congratulate the people of India for their decision. I believe a stronger India could boost our exports in the future as well as ensure a much better trade balance, which already showed an improvement in 2013,” said Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen yesterday, addressing the members of the CII Business Delegation to Sri Lanka.
The 14-member CII delegation led by Ramesh Mutha (Mohan Mutha Exports Ltd.) is currently on a four-day tour to Colombo seeking investment and B2B opportunities.
Among the large-scale corporates making up the delegation are Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd. (Government-owned infrastructure consultancy firm), GMR Group (heavy infrastructure including airports and highways), Astrotech Ltd. (steel), Mohan Muhtha Exports (diverse activities), BBC Universal Exports (high-end construction material), Getech Equipment (drilling), Roquette Riddhi Siddhi Ltd. (confectionary), SOBIS Software (energy sector software) and four firms in the textile industry – Carona Knitwear, SRG Apparels, Gomathy International and Myco Pranav Creations.
Astrotech is looking to set up a steel manufacturing unit, Infrastructure Development Corporation wants medium sized education and healthcare projects which can involve PPP and SOBIS Software wants partnerships in energy/power sector software development.
CII was founded 116 years ago and is a non-government, industry-led and industry-managed body representing over 8,100 organisations (direct membership) from the private and public sectors, SMEs and MNCs, and commands an indirect membership of over 90,000 companies from around 400 national and regional sectoral associations.
According to the Department of Commerce of Sri Lanka, total bilateral trade between the neighbours stood at $ 4.086 b in 2012. In 2013, it was $ 3.36 b, as a result of the bill of imports from India falling by 12%, helping Sri Lanka’s trade balance to improve. After the implementation of ISFTA (1998), bilateral trade steadily increased.
Among Sri Lankan exports to India are insulated wires and cables, bottle coolers, ships, cocoa products, marbles, MDF boards, nutmeg, mace, furniture, garments, rubber gloves, and glass bottles. Top imports from India are petroleum products, automobiles, cotton and sugar.
“We strongly praise President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s acceptance of the invitation to attend the swearing-in ceremony of our Prime Minister-elect Narendra Modi. This will clearly help boost our historic relations,” said Ramesh Mutha, CII Mission Leader to Colombo.
“In the post-FTA period, Indo-Lanka trade has risen rapidly. Indian firms and their Joint Ventures in Sri Lanka not only help fill local demand but even have become part of Sri Lanka’s exports back to India. The large scale corporates in our delegation are keen on heavy infrastructure projects here, including tourism infrastructure, plug-and-play IT parks and highways. We are also ready for JVs in healthcare and high-end education. We believe that it is time to introduce joint Indo-Lanka tourism projects. It’s also great news that Sri Lanka’s economy is reporting strong GDP growth rates at 7% and rising.”
Bathiudeen said: “The last two CII delegations received were in August and November 2013. We concluded many fruitful discussions with CII in these meetings. Today I warmly welcome the first top Indian delegation to visit Sri Lanka representing the ‘new India’. The historic political waves in India and the new changes there appear to considerably stimulating our bilateral trade with India, which has now crossed the $ 4 b mark. In 2012, Indian firms invested $ 158.20 m in Sri Lanka. According to the Indian High Commission in Colombo, in the next two years, India is planning to invest over $ 2 b FDI in Sri Lanka, for which we thank the people of India. I and my Government will extend our fullest support to visiting Indian investors and the businesses.”
Both Bathiudeen and the visiting CII members also discussed the interests and ideas expressed by Indian travellers and tourists to Sri Lanka.
