Commonwealth is diverse-and more so when it comes to sharing its collective prosperity.
“I am pleased of Sri Lanka’s level of participation at London’s Commonwealth Business Forum. The commonwealth celebrates its diversity and shares its collective prosperity with its members” said the British High Commissioner to Sri Lanka James Dauris on 25 April in Colombo. High Commissioner Dauris was in discussion with the Minister of Industry and Commerce of Sri Lanka Rishad Bathiudeen. High Commissioner Dauris responded to Minister Bathiudeen’s apprising of Sri Lanka’s success in London.
After US, UK is the second largest destination for Sri Lankan exports, annually taking in 10% (around $ 1 Bn) of Lankan exports. 75% of exports to UK are apparels.
“Over 200 Commonwealth entrepreneurs were at Sri Lanka breakfast networking session of Commonwealth Enterprise and Economic Council held on the sidelines of CHOGM18. B2B meetings that followed the breakfast meeting provided the opportunity for members of the delegations to develop further into specific opportunities. Representatives from Sri Lankan ICT industry launched the new branding campaign “Island of Ingenuity” which appeared to be received well” Minister Bathiudeen said.
The Breakfast session was jointly facilitated by the Department of Commerce, EDB and London’s Sri Lanka High Commission. According to the Department of Commerce “The business meeting opened a new window to explore partnership between Sri Lankan enterprises and the commonwealth business delegations from other to promote intra commonwealth Trade and investment.
Sri Lanka is considered as one of the major “emergent FDI attracting Commonwealth Destinations” (along with Bangladesh and Singapore). Around 27% of Sri Lanka’s annual global trade in “goods” is being done with theCommonwealth while 40% of Sri Lanka’s global trade in “services” is done with the Commonwealth. Sri Lanka’s country share of Intra-Commonwealth imports is around 3%. The Commonwealth plays a silent but significant role in Sri Lanka’s new trade reforms. In 2016, Commonwealth Secretariat’s Head & Adviser of Trade Competitiveness Dr Rashmi Banga stressed in Colombo that the Secretariat is “providing technical assistance to the Department of Commerce in Sri Lanka in the Department’s (work on) Free Trade Agreement negotiations.” The Secretariat has already analysed and identified 40 new products and 15 new markets for Lankan exports that could add $2 Bn more to the present Lankan export revenues.