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| Monday, 12 July 2004 |
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Aggressive marketing to attract French investment by Sudarshana Perera The French Trade Commission in Sri Lanka will aggressively market Sri Lanka's business potential to attract more French investments in the country. The role to improve bilateral trade ties comes in the wake of France-Sri Lanka trade exchange recording Rs. 27.7 billion for the year 2003 which is also an 8% increase compared to the previous year. A high-level business delegation representing Sri Lanka-France Business Council will soon tour the country to interact with the business community there.
The French Trade Commission would also launch two books in September on "Key facts about a market- Export to Sri Lanka" and "How to Invest in Sri Lanka" designed to capture investor attention. Economic and Commercial Counsellor of the French Trade Commission in Sri Lanka, Hubert Colaris in an interview with Daily News said that Sri Lanka has good potential to attract more French investment and his trade commission has found results in relation to French and Sri Lankan business ties. Colaris said that the establishment of the Sri Lanka-French Business Council recently augurs well for the Sri Lanka economy in attracting potential investors for joint ventures and other forms of investments lake tourism, garments, ICT and other vital sectors. "The two promotional books on Sri Lanka's trade is another significant step on to promote the country in France and those books written in French would be found useful by potential investors," he said. The joint venture between MAS Holdings and Noyon in Calais, France recently to set up a lace making factory in Biyagama with a US $ 40 million is also a milestone for French investments in Sri Lanka and France has also found potential in tourism here," he said. Commenting on the last year bilateral performances, he said that France has exported goods to the value of Rs. 13 billion (Euros 107 million) showing a healthy growth over the previous year. France imports from Sri Lanka was Rs. 14.8 billion. Sri Lanka's exports to France particularly textiles and garments amounted to Rs. 6-7 billion (Euro 56 million) accounting for 46% of all Sri Lankan exports to France. He said that a program of visits by the business delegates from both countries have been launched and it is organised by French delegation of SMEs which attended the EU-Partenariate in Colombo recently. For French companies that event resulted a good dialogue with Sri Lankan business partners; the fruits of which could be seen in months to come," he said. Commercial Attache of the French Trade Commission in Sri Lanka, Hilary Wirasinha commended the pro-active role played by the Sri Lankan Commercial Section of the embassy in France to improve bilateral ties. |
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