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| Wednesday, 03 November 2004 |
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Exploit vast business potential in Chile, says envoy By Shirajiv Sirimane Sri Lankans should exploit the vast business potential in Chile said the visiting Ambassador in Chile based in India Jorge Heine. Heine told the 'Daily News' that local textiles and fabrics have a very big market in Chile and Sri Lanka should concentrate more on this sector and increase exports. "I have never seen such good quality material any where in the world to match the Sri Lankan quality," he said. Some of the Sri Lankan apparel which are exported to USA are sometimes reexported to Chile. He said that Chilean investors could use Sri Lanka as a hub to reexport their products to nearby counties. "The vast fish industry potential in the Maldives is underutilised and Chileans could use Sri Lanka as a business hub to get into this market," he said. He said that most of the fishing gear is imported and Sri Lankans should try to sell their products to Chile. Heine also said that though Chile has a population of only 15 million people its annual imports are over US $ 26 billion and exports over US 30 billion. Chile has the highest per capita of tea drinkers in the world (800) and this is another area Sri Lankans should focus on. "There should be more diversified tea products such as organic or flavoured tea to Chile from Sri Lanka," he said. It is high time to break away from the traditional concept of exporting tea bags without innovation. Over 1.5 million Chileans travel annually and Sri Lanka has not done any major promotions in this area to woo them. The potential in Sri Lanka's culture, history, architecture, beaches and adventure tourism is tremendous. "If Sri Lanka could introduce the right package they could divert the Chilean tourists from the popular Caribbean, Spanish and Italian markets," he said. He said that Chile is the biggest exporter of copper accounting for 36 percent of the world's consumption while USA is the second with 6 percent. "However the Chilean government diversified from copper and today it is also the biggest exporter of fresh fruits, second biggest exporter of fish after Norway and the fifth largest exporter of wines. "A country should never focus only on one product for survival," he said. He said that it would be a good idea to set up a mission in Chile and he would assist in hosting a Sri Lanka trade exhibition in Chile. He said he would explore the possibility of issuing long term business visas to Sri Lankans. Sri Lanka imported tea and spices to Chile to the value of Rs. 770 million last year which is 84 percent of the total exports. In addition rubber based products (Rs. 66 million) apparel (27 million) and desiccated coconut (19 million) are the main commodities exported. Preserved and prepared fish exports from Chile amounted to Rs. 1,501 million (99 percent) last year while flour meals, wines, fertiliser and other products amounted to Rs. 17 million last year. |
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