Tuesday Nov 26, 2024
Tuesday Nov 26, 2024
Wednesday, 10 April 2013 01:28 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Plastics and Rubber Institute of Sri Lanka President Anver Dole addressed the Petrochemicals Conclave 2013, at the award-winning Leela Kempinski Hotel Gurgaon New Delhi recently, on the invitation of the giant Indian oil corporation, which ranked 83 in the Fortune ‘Global 500’ listing in 2012.
With its theme South Asia-land of opportunities, the conclave explored various opportunities available in South Asia for trade in the petrochemical industry along with innovations in technologies and investment.
The conclave was attended by over 550 invited delegates and had eminent speakers from the USA, the Middle East, Singapore, Japan, Europe, Nepal and Sri Lanka.
Arousing much interest amongst the participants with his presentation on ‘Petrochemicals-The Sri Lankan perspective’, Dole outlined the status of the plastics industry, the oil refinery, and highlighted Sri Lanka’s opening of international bids in Houston, USA for the issue of licenses for oil drilling in the Cauvery and Mannar basins.
Dole emphasised that Sri Lanka was ranked first in South Asia in the Human Development Index and was ranked at 43 out of 111 countries in the Quality-of-Life Index, whilst making it to the influential Country Brand Index for the first time in the compilation’s eight-year history, debuting at a respectable 67 overall rank out of 118 countries, and 13 among Asia Pacific nations surveyed by Future Brand.
Extolling the virtues of Sri Lanka as an attractive investment centre, Dole highlighted that Sri Lanka had bettered its ease of doing business ranking to 81 from 89, topping the South Asia rankings, and that its GDP per capita of US$ 2,864 exceeded all other countries in South Asia other than the Maldives.
He further reiterated that unprecedented infrastructure development had taken place since the cessation of the 30-year war, and Sri Lanka currently boasts of a strong and stable Government, offering much to its potential investors.
