Keerthi Gunawardane re-appointed as ICCSL Chairman

Thursday, 4 December 2014 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

At the 48th Annual General Meeting of the International Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka (ICCSL) Keerthi Gunawardane was re-elected as the Chairman. He is an Economics special graduate from the Sri Jayawardanepura University and obtained his Post Graduate qualifications from the Institute of Chartered A

ccountants of Sri Lanka in the field of Business and Financial Administration. In addition he has qualified himself at Colombo University for Hypermedia Engineering and Multimedia Technology. Speaking on his appointment as ICCSL Chairman Keerthi Gunawardane said, “We have planned a few projects to benefit our members, school leavers and the fresh graduates passing out from the universities.” Gunawardane said the forthcoming Free Trade agreement (FTA) with China can largely benefit some of our gem and jewellery members. The Government of China plans to increase imports by averaging of 60% off the duty rates of most favoured nations, applied to 767 imported commodities. The lowering of tariff is expected to promote steady growth in foreign trade, encourage import of advanced technological equipments and items that cannot be produced in China. He mentioned this will create an opportunity for the gem and jewellery exporters who are mostly our members and carnet customers. He said this sector should maximise their benefits and ICCSL will come up with programmes to support them in order to improve their designs, manufacturing and marketing skills. He emphasised the fact that we need to create the highest value addition in order to attract the foreign markets and quoted a few examples from the Business Process Outsource (BPO) and the value added Tea industry. He mentioned International Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka (ICCSL) for the first time hosting a series of global events in collaboration with our Head Quarters ICC, Paris and the World Chambers Federation (WCF), World International Certificate of Origin Council and ATA carnet Council. “We are expecting 50 foreign participants from all around the world. We are creating opportunity for the Sri Lanka Customs and the local participants to attend the ATA Carnet workshop and share knowledge with the foreign experts.” Keerthi Gunawardane has been a successful past president of the Sri Lanka Association of Printers. He is presently serving as the Chairman Advisory Committee to the Export Development Board on the Printing and Packaging and Vice President of Sri Lanka Printers Co-operative Society. He has served as Council Member and a SAARC member at the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry Sri Lanka, Chairman of the SAARC IT Council, Chairman of the FAGAT Forum of Graphic Art Technology, Board Member – Ingrin Institute of Printing and Graphics, Board Member of the Sri Institute of Printing and Board Member of the Sri Lanka Accounting and Auditing Standards Monitoring Board.