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by Sudarshana Perera and Ranga Chandraratne

Sri Lanka will be transformed into a duty free country which will promote tourism and trade while enhancing the country's image as a manufacturing and export led base rather than a country for import and trade, Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Ravi Karunanayake told the opening ceremony of IT-Office 2003 exhibition at the BMICH on Friday.

Such measures will definitely contain the loss of revenue we are incurring now, he said. Minister Karunanayake said that the government will by the end of the year, enter into Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with Egypt and Pakistan which will be followed by Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and the United States which would provide market access to the globalised trade.

"The Government will do its utmost to integrate Sri Lanka with the rest of the world through globalised and multi-lateral trading while expanding and enhancing market opportunities in the region" he said. The Minister assured the business community that he would visit many countries to integrate for Lanka's trade with the globalised world.

Commenting on the current national economic achievements, he said that the economy was recovering fast with satisfactory growth. This is a redeeming factor in the light of the country's international image which was written off about twenty months ago.

"The cost of living has been contained to a certain extent and the Government is taking new measures that would lead to the enhancement of the economy", he said. While assuring the Government's cooperation to the business community at all times, he appealed to businessmen that consumers should be protected at all times.

IT Office 2003, a major exhibition targeted to bring the IT sector and office automation companies to a common platform is expected to open new market opportunities for the sector and office automation companies which are regarded as inter-related sectors.

Around 80 stalls representing Computer Hardware, Software, IT training, Internet and IT related companies represent the IT sector at the exhibition.

Office Automation, Telecommunication furniture, office interior, stationery companies and office related service providers also participated.

The exhibition was held till yesterday. IT Office 2003 is the second exhibition of its kind. The first was held in Kandy.

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