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| Thursday, 18 December 2003 |
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Call to expedite proposed FTA with USA Exporters can tap new trade opportunities in the United States if the Government takes rapid action to finalise the proposed Free Trade Agreement with America and implement it soon, Chairman of the Brandix Apparel Ltd., Most Outstanding Exporter of the year 2003 Asroff Omar said. Expressing his views to the officials of the Ministry of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and organisers of the National Exports Excellence Award, (NEEA) Omar said that his company has big plans for the future to expand his business to international markets especially in the USA. He urged the Government to activate the talks on the proposed FTA with America, which has now come to a standstill following the present political situation. Several other gold award winners at the recent NEEAs at the BMICH predicted a positive future for the national export market and requested the Government to clear certain barriers standing in their way and assist them to thrive in export business. Companies that excelled in the first ever National Exports Excellence Award NEEA 2003 collectively hailed the efforts of the government for recognizing their performance that gave them the confidence to go for bigger achievements in the future. Referring to the NEEA award ceremony held at the BMICH which was organised by the Ministry of Commerce and Consumer Affairs in collaboration with the Ministry of Enterprise Development early this month, several Gold award winners we spoke to had positive comments about the event. Managing Director of the H.J.S. Condiments Ltd Anil Wikramanayake the which is exporting pickles told that they have got a Gold award and that would give them confidence to go forward as a reputed company. The recognition by the government would give a additional plus point to our company in this competitive market, he said. But Wikramanayake said the government should try to remove or reduce the 14.1 percent Import duty imposed by the countries in the European Union for Sri Lankan pickles and related products categories, which he says would help them towards expanding their export quantity further. Meanwhile the Managing Director of Rileys Ltd Chrishan Mendis a member of the Hayleys group who won a gold award for exporting coconut products commended the government for initiating this award ceremony to recognize the exporters of the country who has rendered their services to the nation by successfully exporting products. He said its a moral booster for everybody at the company speaking about the future of the Countries Export sector Mendis said that authorities should address certain problems faced by the coconut industry as a whole, which he said would help companies such as Rileys to continue with their innovative culture which has been their success. General Manager (Finance) of Royal Fernwood Porcelain Ltd Telley Fernando who won the gold award for the export of Mineral and Non metallic products attributed the event as a good one for the country and the exporters, He said it would lead them to do new things. Fernando speaking about their performance added the Sri Lanka India Free Trade Agreement has helped them to increase their exports to India and said next year it would further increase. Chairman of Hands International Pvt. Ltd Gratian Gunawaradena said that he is happy for the gold his company won in exporting rubber products, but added that there is lot of small scale exporters who could perform better given little assistance by the government. HoweverGunawaradena said he sees great potential for the export sector in the country and said its on its way towards reaching greater heights. General Manager of the Lanka Fastner Ltd which grabbed a Gold award for their performance in exporting Industrial Products said that the FTA signed between India and Sri Lanka has helped them towards exporting their metric size steel and stainless nuts in large amounts to the Indian Market. He said during the year the company exported products that is worth around Rs. 45 million in comparison to Rs. 29 million in year 2002. |
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