Opening of East offers abundant scope for German private sector
The opening of the Eastern Province after more than 10 years now
paves the way for development activity on a considerable scale, and it
is important that the business community in Germany should be aware of
the opportunities in a variety of fields available to them to
participate fully and productively, 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 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, and that an even
stronger performance is likely next year.
This conclusion, the Minister said, is in line with similar positive
assessments by the International Monetary Fund and by David Griffiths,
the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation in
Sri Lanka.
He said that the value of Sri Lankan exports have grown by more than
14% in the first few months of this year. 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.
To facilitate commercial activity, for which there is now immense
potential, the government will show a strong commitment to
infrastructure projects, with particular reference to roads and power
generation, and the German private sector could play a useful role in
interacting with the German Government and with legislators in Berlin
regarding the feasibility of enhanced German development co-operation in
light of recent developments, Prof. Peiris continued.
The Round Table Business Meeting was attended by Sri Lanka’s
Ambassador to Germany Jayantha Palipane and by Honorary Consul of Sri
Lanka in Hamburg Olar Ellerbrock.
The Minister was interviewed by the German national newspaper
“Tagesspiegal” Radio Multikulti/RBB, and the National TV Channel, NDR. |