Business co-operation agreement with Bahrain:

Sri Lanka bids to bolster business

A delegation from the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce are in Bahrain to promote exports from Sri Lanka.It plans to hold meetings with the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry and local traders.

“Our delegation represents a cross section of large groups in Sri Lanka that produce a wide and varied variety of products,” said delegation head and Sri Lanka-based International Foodstuff Company Chairman S Sarath Chandra De Silva.

“We are not here only to provide for trading, but also want to emphasise on services.

“We would like to provide Bahrain with trained and skilled workers in fields such as medicine, banking and construction.”

De Silva said that Sri Lanka has been trading with other countries in the GCC, but have not yet thoroughly established themselves in Bahrain, something that the delegation wishes to accomplish with this visit.

A memorandum of understanding will be signed today as a business co-operation agreement between the two countries that will aid them in exchanging trade information as well as increase trade investment and service investment.

“Bahrain is an emerging market,” said Ceylon Chamber of Commerce member Puvi Domingopillai.

“We are already established in most of the Gulf states, especially Kuwait and Dubai, and we have even gone up to Syria and Jordan.

“For sometime we have seen that trade with Bahrain was not reaching its total capacity and we know that it will be the financial centre for the Gulf.

“We want to provide the highest quality of products in the market until it is saturated.”

The delegation said that it is likely to return to Bahrain in three months to expand on the relationship between the two chambers and also capitalise on deals that have been cut.

“We provide for big companies like Walmart, Kmart, Seers, our coconuts in Sri Lanka are used in the Mars bar confectionary,” Eastern Merchants director H J De Silva.

“We have superior products which we would like to provide to the Middle East.

“Currently the majority of products come from India or China, we would like to give a better quality of product to Bahrain, as the country has not yet been given this quality of product.”

The delegation said that its foresees Bahrain as being a big emerging market and that although trade has been quiet for a while, the capacity of trade with Bahrain is likely to increase soon.

“Since Saudi Arabia joined the World Trade Organisation the trade route for goods to go to Saudi Arabia through Bahrain has reduced,” De Silva said.

“Before Saudi Arabia opened up direct imports it was Bahrain and Dubai that fed Saudi. For some time Bahrain was quiet, all of a sudden now the country is ready.”

De Silva also said that the majority of products Sri Lanka exports to Europe could be imported in the Middle East, but currently such products are being neglected.

“In Sri Lanka we are in what we call a forward gear production drive of agricultural products, mostly for exports,” he said.

“We have introduced floriculture, and are adding more and more to utilise the total land capacity of Sri Lanka.

“So where we have introduced new lines we also have a surplus in things such as rice as we have so many expatriates abroad.

“We hope to expand in Bahrain beyond expectations, we were given a very good welcome by the chamber and the arrangements that have been made are exceptional.”

Gulf, Daily News