Sri Lanka Business News | Online edition of Daily News

There is tremendous potential and opportunities for tourism, fisheries, agriculture and construction sectors in the Northern Province. Investors need to recognize the importance of these opportunities available in this area and try to get the maximum benefits out of them.

Lanka Orix Finance Company CEO, Brindly de Zylva, Member of Diaspora in Australia Nagesha Wickramasooriya, Hambantota District Chamber of Commerce Chairman, BPA-Director Suresh de Mel, Bates Asia Strategic Alliance Director Rezani Aziz, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Chairman Dr. Anura Ekanayake, Chamber of Commerce and Industries of Yalpanam and Early Recovery Coordination Officer-UNDP, Jaffna, Rasanayagam Sharvananda at the forum.

The loan re-payment in the Northern province is over 95 percent, Ernst and Young Partner, Arjuna Herath told the Biz Pact Investment Forum at the Jaffna Library yesterday.

Herath said the tourism industry has immense potential in the Northern and Eastern province. Five hundred people are visiting Jaffna daily and these people are mainly pilgrims. “We are still at the early stage of the tourism industry in this part of the country,” he said.

Once the developments takes place and the investors start investing in this area, Jaffna will not be second to any part of the country”, Herath told a packed forum yesterday.

“The Northern province consists 13.5 percent of the country and has a population of over 1.2 million. The literacy rate of the people in the Northern Province is over 92.5 percent. High literacy rate and human resources are two major factors for development. Fifty percent of the country’s red onion requirement is fulfilled by the Northern Province red onion cultivation and 30 percent of the country’s demand for fish is also provided by this province,” he said.

However, even if there are many sectors that have scope the provincial contribution to the GDP is very low compared to the other provinces. Northern Province contribution to the GDP was 2.9 percent while the contribution from the Western province was 48.4 percent. It is significant that the Northern Province could also contribute its maximum while making use of the resources and opportunities available in the province, Herath said.

Chamber of Commerce and Industries of Trincomalee District Director BPA, P. Wickramanayagam said the Eastern Province developments and infrastructure development has taken place upto some extent. “There are industrial zones built in the Eastern Province which has helped to reduce the unemployment in the area and to uplift the standard of their livelihood,” he said.

He said a proper research on each potential sectors is important to analyze and to select the best option. “It is vital to identify and improve the natural resources, human resources, capacity development and adopting technology to meet the high demand and to have a sustainable supply chain,” he said. More SME development banks are needed to cater to the micro sector as the commercial banks are profit oriented. The SME development banks are the finest banks in assisting and encouraging the SME sectors.

Therefore, we expect that the Government will set up few SME development banks in the near future to uplift the business in the Northern and the Eastern Province.

Export Development Board (EDB) Director, George Perera said the board has done a research in export potentials in the Northern province. EDB has set up a branch in Jaffna and has already assisted to set up an ice plant in Jaffna.

He said that there is scope for sectors such as palmyra, fruits and vegetables (fresh and dried), fisheries, ginger, handicrafts, tobacco, salt base industries, chemical industries and packaging industries.

The products have to be launched under a particular brand name. Assistance to open sales points especially in the countries such as Germany, France and the UK where there is lot of Sri Lankan diaspora where there is a market already, is needed.

North begins to happen