Move away from stagnating markets - ADB

Shirajiv SIRIMANE

Sri Lankan exporters should try to move away from stagnating markets and look at emerging markets Asian Development Bank’s, Sri Lanka Resident Mission Country Director, Rita O’Sullivan said.

Speaking at the 25th National Chamber of Exporters annual general meeting on Tuesday she said that today 20% of Srl Lanka’s exports go to the USA and 39% to the EU.

“In aggregate that means that 60% is going to stagnating markets. Only 4 to 5% goes to India and 1% to China, which are the fastest growing markets,” she said.

“Sri Lanka is now at an important point in history, where great opportunities are open to the country for rapid growth and development, but not without some significant challenges.”

The global economy is undergoing many uncertainties and change, and particularly within the US and EU, Sri Lanka’s main trading partners.

“These new challenges should propel us to take a fresh look at the way we do business, in order to meet the demands of an increasingly sophisticated and complex consumer base, in new markets,” O’Sullivan said.

She also said the Government aims to strengthen export growth by promoting exports and efficient import substitution as broad policy objectives through export diversification with an emphasis on supporting access to finance for SMEs, inf-rastructure development, and policy support-based backward integration for high-value-added exports.

The strategies recommend market penetration through securing preferential market access, upgrading competitiveness, and strengthening the trade regulatory environment.

“However the lack of an EXIM bank clearly limits exporters.”