Sri Lanka- British Business Sees Strong Growth. Council for Business with Britain to Play a Major Role

14th July 2010, www.lankabusinessonline.com

The Council for Business with Britain (CBB) made up of firms doing business with the UK is expecting more business volumes between the two countries with the end of a three decade long war.

"As patron of the CBB, I am pleased to support this group in their on-going efforts to promote bilateral business relations between the UK and Sri Lanka," Acting British High Commissioner, Mark Gooding, said in a statement.

"Now is an important time in Sri Lanka’s economic development and the UK is already playing a role, through the companies represented by the CBB, but we can do more.

This will help further develop the strong existing economic and cultural links between our two countries at this exciting time for Sri Lanka."

The CBB has a membership of over 140 companies.

"The Council must look at ways to interact with its members in order to assist them in benefitting from the expected upturn in trade and business in general," the newly elected chairman of the CBB, Nick Nicolaou, who heads HSBC Bank was quoted as saying.

At the annual general meeting of the council held this week Shirendra Lawrence, managing director, MAS Active (Pvt.) Ltd. was elected vice chairman, a UK embassy said.

Mustanser Ali Khan, chief executive of Ceylon Tobacco Company was elected secretary, and Mohammed Ziauddin, managing director, Norfolk Foods (Pvt.) Ltd was elected treasurer.

Manesh Fernando, general manager, Hilton Residence Colombo; Romesh David, president, transportation and IT, John Keells Holdings; Janet Ford, Head of UK Trade and Investment, British High Commission, Colombo; Gill Westaway, Director, British Council, Sri Lanka; Lal de Alwis, President, National Chamber of Commerce and Anil Wijesinghe, chairman AWS Institute of Education were elected committee members.

Sri Lanka Trade and Investment Promotion Mission to Benelux Countries in May

08th April 2010, www.dailynews.lk

The Sri Lanka - Benelux Business Council of Ceylon Chamber of Commerce will be organizing a trade and investment promotion mission to Netherlands (Amsterdam and Hague), Belgium (Brussels) and Luxembourg from May 24 to 29.

The main objective of the mission is to strengthen trade ties, source suitable business partners for trade, investments, joint ventures, technology transfer and services. It is hoped that this mission would assist in expanding existing business contacts.

The Sri Lanka Embassies in Netherlands and Belgium will be organizing business forums and business match making events in association with Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Hague, Brussels and Luxembourg Chambers of Commerce. The potential products and services identified for promotion are; tourism, gems and jewellery, garments, coir products, rubber products, tea, horticulture, information technology , fish (tuna), wooden and soft toys and stationery and imports such as sugar and pharmaceuticals.

Hambantota Port Tender for Support Services

19th October 2009, www.island.lk, By Devan Daniel

Proposals are pouring in from the private sector about setting up support services at the Hambantota Port and officials said the SLPA would soon call for official tenders.

"We have received so many proposals from the business community about setting up support services at the Hambantota Port that we have decided to officially call for tenders in a few months time," a senior official of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA)told the Island Financial Review.

Food, freshwater, transportation, hospitality and healthcare, apart from ship repairs and bunkering facilities, are some of the areas in which support services would be required and present opportunities for businesses to claim a stake in the development activities the port would generate.

However, regional businesses are concerned that they would be crowded out by ‘bigger’ companies from Colombo.

According to the Sri Lanka Ports Authority about US$ 120 million has already been spent on the Hambantota Port and the first phase of the construction is expected to be completed four months ahead of schedule by January 2011 at a cost of about US$ 360 million.

Hambantota Port (Harbour) on Google Maps