East offers abundant scope for German private sector - Prof. G.L. Peiris

The opening of the Eastern Province after more than 10 years now paves the way for development activity on a considerable scale, Minister of Export Development and International Trade Prof. G.L. Peiris told the Round Table Business Meeting with members of the Asia Pacific Business Association in Hamburg.

Minister Peiris said that German companies had been accustomed for a long time to engaging in business in Sri Lanka, and today the country has many companies with substantial German investment.

Prominent German business establishments are already showing eagerness in making use of opportunities in Sri Lanka today, the Minister remarked, adding that entrepreneurs of the calibre of Michael Mros, Senior Manager of Lidl Deutsch (one of the largest retail food chains in Germany) and Thomas Stillmann, Managing Director of Windrose Air, had met him, at one-to-one meetings in Berlin, to discuss their plans for coming into Sri Lanka.

Minister Peiris provided the German business community with detailed information relating to the decisive advantages accruing from investment in Sri Lanka, especially because of the Free Trade Agreement in operation between Sri Lanka and India.

He explained that German companies investing in Sri Lanka and complying with the criteria applicable to value addition have the benefit of access to the markets of the subcontinent without payment of duty in respect of extensive categories of items.

The strong performance of the economy of Sri Lanka under challenging circumstances has been explicitly testified to by international financial specialists of unassailable repute, the Minister said.

He told the Hamburg Round Table about the comment by Prof. Norbert Walter, Chief Economist and Managing Director of Research of the Deutsch Bank, at a media presentation in Colombo last week that GDP growth in Sri Lanka has continued successfully last year, even stronger.

What is striking about the current situation, the Minister pointed out, is the convergence of interest between the German business community and the national interest of Sri Lanka.

Stressing that peace cannot be regarded realistically as a zero sum issue, he said that he disagreed with the view expressed in some quarters that peace, in an absolute or total sense, is a precondition for investment or trading activity.

If this was the case, some of the world’s most lucrative destinations for investment today would have to be shunned, he said. Many of the leading German businessmen, who had met him, were confident in their opinion that an objective appraisal of commercial possibilities in the developing situation in the Island warranted their entry.

The Round Table Business Meeting was attended by Sri Lanka’s Ambassador to Germany Jayantha Palipane and Honorary Consul of Sri Lanka in Hamburg Olar Ellerbrock.