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Sathosa will launch a voucher scheme for expatriate workers in the Middle East, which they can purchase and send home to buy provisions at Sathosa outlets.

This was made known when Sathosa opened a 13,000 square ft. personal baggage clearance centre for Middle East expatriate workers at their warehouse complex at Welisara. Finance Minister K. N. Choksy was the chief guest.

The centre was a joint venture between Sathosa and Al Ghandi Freight Services LLC of UAE, which was launched to serve the expatriate workers community by bringing down the freight charges of baggage by 50%.

Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister Ravi Karunanayake said that Sathosa has plans to expand their line of businesses in the Middle East, which will include a money transferring scheme accompanied by the voucher scheme and Sathosa franchise outlets in the main cities in the Middle East to provide the expatriate workers the taste of the homeland, including their favourite newspapers, periodicals and books in addition to the usual grocery.

He said that the controversial strategic plan to save Sathosa by expanding business and increasing profit centres, rather than downsizing and pruning subsidiaries were successful in the first year of operations and outlined some plans to expand it into a conglomerate in future. Minister Choksy commended the new venture and expected it to lead a healthy competition in the baggage forwarding and clearing business, which is a private sector monopoly at present.

He stressed the importance of catering to the needs of expatriate workers highlighting the service aspect of it as they contribute the major portion of the national foreign exchange earnings, which is estimated to be Rs. 162 billion per year.

Sathosa Chairman Lal Wickramathunge said that the venture was a value addition to Sathosa's line of business where it uses existing facilities and labour to generate more revenue through diversification. Deputy Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Jayasundara Wijekoon, GM and Executive Director of KNP Overseas UAE, Sanjeewa Wijeratne, Local representative of Al Ghandi Kapla Samarasinghe and other officials of Sathosa were present.

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