India Investrade 2012 ends with huge participation

Sanjeevi JAYASURIYA

The India Investrade 2012, an exposition and buyer seller meet on realty construction and construction material organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC) was held in Colombo last week.

The three day programme dealt with " Realty Construction and Construction Material " as the focus industrial sector.

The programme consisted of a conference, an exhibition and buyer-seller meets. ICC organised this event for the first time in Sri Lanka with the support from Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India.

The purpose of the event was to promote and facilitate trade and business engagement between India and Sri Lanka.

The idea was to focus on a very crucial industrial segment for both the countries and introduce Indian entrepreneurs of that sector with their Sri Lankan counterparts and promote the process of business engagement in terms of facilitating proper information flows, exchange of ideas, sharing common business interests, finding ways to alleviate existing institutional and non-institutional barriers for trade and investment and finally arrive at actual business deals.

The goals of the programme could be placed in the broader framework of Government of India's existing foreign policy of intensifying regional co-operation and economic integration with South and South East Asian countries.

With this perspective, Indian Chamber of Commerce decided to hold the first "India Investrade" in Sri Lanka with pro-active support from leading industry bodies of Bangladesh, namely "Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka and National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka.

Minister of Economic Development, Basil Rajapaksa said at the inauguration,' Sri Lankan economy is growing at a rate of 8.3% for the last two years. The economy is seeing a boom in the construction sector and construction materials as well.

"India being a neighbouring country has a role to play in shaping up the construction sector in Sri Lanka. This is perhaps the right time to invest in the country .The sectors which have also the opportunities to explore apart from construction sector are tourism, education and skill development. He invited India to invest in sectors of education and skill development in Sri Lanka.

Ashok K Kantha, High Commissioner of India thanked ICC for taking this initiative and said. "India and Sri Lanka already have a strong trade investment link and the two countries should use this relation as a platform and increase the growth trajectory further.

Today India and Sri Lanka are in the midst of strong economic growth and India by investing USD 150 million in Sri Lanka further strengthens the relation between two countries. He also added that as Sri Lanka is having a construction boom it is expected that in next 5 years the sector will be growing at 20 % per annum."

He mentioned that in order to boost the bilateral relation in construction sector the Sri Lankan government is providing incentives to the Indian companies for investing in the country.

The exhibition was inaugurated by Basil Rajapaksa,Minister for Economic Development. Over 50 construction and construction material companies from India participated.

Around 250 delegates witnessed the conference on the first day. The event was well managed by Victory Exhibitions and Conventions (Pvt) Ltd. The participation from media was also remarkable.