South European investors eyeing Lanka

Lumbini Edirisinghe

Greek companies are keen to invest in Sri Lanka and other Asian countries said President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Drama Greece Kyriakos M. Charakidis.

Speaking at a seminar on “Technological and Business Matchmaking for the SME’s” in the IT and IT-enabled services Processed Food sector South Europe meets South Asia -SEMSA 2009 organized by the Chamber of Commerce in Colombo last Friday he said that they are aggressively progressing in this way.

“This is our first business exploring mission of South Asian countries. Cultural or any other differences are no barriers for entrepreneurs of Greece. We are always considering effective business opportunities,” he said.

The main objective of the event was to promote technological and business collaboration between South Asia and South Europe by facilitating one to one business meetings between South Asian SME’s from Greece, Italy, Slovenia and Spain.

The event was co-organized by European Union initiative in association with the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Dhaka, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Drama, Greece, the Chamber of Commerce of and Industry of Slovenia, the Federation Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mondimpresa Euro Info Centre, Italy and Foundation ADEuropa, Spain.

Chairperson Meridian Group, Bangladesh, Kohinoor Kamal said that South Asia has a lot of natural and human resources. “Therefore we are waiting for successful entrepreneurs from Europe to invest in Asian countries. I hope these meetings would be a buffer to the Asian economy with the current global meltdown,” she said.

“There is a great opportunity for foreign investors with the global economic downturn. We have a variety of food ranges including tea, coconut, spices and tropical fruits among others. Tropical foods are raw material for lucrative industry in Asian countries.

There is a vast scenario which is very dynamic to the foreign entrepreneurs such as natural food and beverages, organic food and beverages, authentic food and beverages and fair traded food and beverages,” said Managing Director, Mass Foods and Chairman Process Food Initiatives, Mario De Alwis. “Asia is a line for existing food brands through co-packing agreements and Asia provides value for the European entrepreneurs,” he added.