Call to tap lucrative markets in EU

by Ramani Kangaraarachchi

Trade secretaries of several diplomatic missions in Sri Lanka addressed members of the European Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka to reveal about trade and investment opportunities available for Sri Lanka in the EU at a workshop conducted by the ECCSL at Trans Asia Hotel, Colombo last week.

General Manager ECCSL Sujeevan Perera said that EU countries now offer lucrative markets mainly due to changes of the trends in consumer behaviour and requested the members to watch these trends for health, convenience, care, security, innovative to capture those markets. He pointed out five fold trends in consumer behaviour namely social, technological, economic, environmental and political and developments in retail marketing with a focus on fresh food products.

Giving an overview of EU trade policies EC economic and Trade Advisor to Sri Lanka Roshan Lyman said EU looks at developing countries in a very responsible manner and treats them in a special way.

Referring to certain misconceptions among the people on liberalisation of the services such as telecommunication, water and health he said that exporters will benefit through these processes as the cost of various services will go down and products will become more competitive.

The Trade Secretaries of British High Commission Dave Waring, Richard Lewis ICT Sector, President Polish Business Council Bramwell Smith Trade Councillor Embassy of Italy Luca Fraticelli, Belgium Consulate Dominique Tanghe and Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Netherlands Harry J Van Dijk spoke about the trade and investments opportunities in their respective countries.

The workshop also concentrated on market access requirements, trade fairs, and future trade missions coming to Sri Lanka, and State assistance programmes to the exports of developing countries.

EU is the largest trade bloc in the world and Sri Lanka's largest trading partner representing 22 per cent of Sri Lanka's total external trade.