Lankan business leaders on historic visit to Mumbai

A delegation of regional business leaders from the Business for Peace Alliance (BPA) reaped success recently in a visit to Mumbai, India, to attend a global meeting of business leaders and experts exploring the private sector role in contributing to sustainable development and peace-building.

The Conference on “Responsibility to the future: business, peace, sustainability” convened by the respected India business think-tank Strategic Foresight Group (SFG) and with business leaders and strategy experts from 22 countries, including the major industrial powers, participating, was inaugurated by Indian President Pratibha Patil with several Union Ministers and the Maharashtra Chief Minister in attendance.

BPA Secretary General Manique Mendis was a special invitee to the Conference and a four-member delegation from the BPA Board joined her to participate. The BPA delegation comprised Dudley Jayasekara, (Central Province), Swarnaraj (Vavuniya), Sarath Kahapolaarachchi (Kaluthara) Manique Mendis, Secretary General and Yogitha Karunandham, Management Executive.

On the sidelines of the Conference, the BPA delegation held a ‘Nepal-Sri Lanka Business Roundtable’ together with a delegation from the National Business Initiative (NBI) of Nepal to share experiences between the two countries of business communities coping with long drawn internal conflict and social instability.

This first ever formal interaction between Nepali and Sri Lankan business organizations working for peace in their respective nations was capped with a ‘Mumbai Declaration’ that affirmed their joint commitment to peace in their countries and in the larger South Asian region and to future collaboration for mutual support in their endeavours.