Hospitality and leisure industry:

French companies keen on entering Sri Lanka

Anjana Samarasinghe

French companies engaged in the hospitality and leisure industry are keen on entering into Sri Lanka with the tourism boom in the country.

Embassy of France Economic and Commercial Counsellor Bruno Viviez said the end of 30 years war in a 2009 resulted in tourism boom with the arrivals from France up by 46 percent in 2010 and 34 percent in the first quarter of 2011.

He was speaking at a seminar on "Bi-lateral trade with France" which was held yesterday at the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka (NCCSL).

The tourism industry thus becomes one of the key sectors of interest in post war Sri Lanka for French investors and entrepreneurs, he said.

At present several well known French groups in the hospitality and leisure industry are demonstrating an active interest to enter the Sri Lanka market due to the conducive socio economic condition in Sri Lanka, he said.

The bilateral trade between Sri Lanka and France recorded significant growth at 34.4 percent during last year. Exports from France nearly doubled to Euros 127 millions and imports from Sri Lanka reached the amount of Euros 186 million in last year.

"We are confident that this favourable commercial and investment climate will strengthen the trade ties between the two countries and attract the interest of more French investors," he said.

French business chambers are also keen on entering into MOUs with the Sri Lankan Chambers to strengthen trade ties with both countries, he said.