'Lanka's policy decisions highly appreciated'

Sanjeevi JAYASURIYA

The Sri Lankan government's efforts to improve the business environment by tackling existing barriers to trade and streamlining bureaucracy has to be highly appreciated, said British High Commissioner John Rankin, speaking at the recently held Sri Lanka Apparel Sourcing Association AGM. He said that Sri Lanka has improved by ten places from last year in the Global Competitiveness Index.

The government's policy decisions have helped buyers and exporters in the apparel industry. The devaluing of the rupee, while recognizing the knock on effects on manufacturing costs and the price of imported raw materials.

In developing the Sri Lankan economy, the government has taken initiatives to improve the country's business environment. Sri Lanka needs to have closer relationships with the UK by encouraging more UK companies to consider Sri Lanka as an ethical and profitable trading partner and source of supply.

UK companies looking to operate in Sri Lanka expect that the government will provide four things, namely certainty and stability; increased transparency over government contracts; tax incentives to allow them to grow; and confidence that their investments will not be subject to arbitrary action.

UK companies also look for things from their government, which is why we are taking decisive action to tackle our budget deficit and gear our economic policies heavily in support of both foreign investment and exports. We believe this is the only way to achieve strong, sustainable and balanced growth, he said.

Last year the UK government published The Plan for Growth alongside the 2011 budget, setting out a wide-reaching programme of structural reforms to support enterprise and lay the foundations for a stronger and more balanced economy in the medium term in making the UK the best place in Europe to start, finance and grow a business by simplifying business regulations.

"Despite challenging times for Western economies, I believe that the prospects for bilateral trade between the UK and Sri Lanka remain bright. In 2011, Sri Lankan exports to the UK totalled over US $ 1.2 billion and imports from the UK were worth some US $ 245 million. That made the UK Sri Lanka's second largest trading partner by volume. And there are over 100 companies in Sri Lanka with UK affiliations including major companies in the garment sourcing sector such as Marks and Spencer, Tesco, Triumph and Next,"he said.