‘Fakih’ looking for joint venture in SL

As investments in tourism sector continue to rise, a leading global player in gifts and souvenir sector who is known for items with cultural identities, is looking to partner in a joint venture in Sri Lanka. “We like Fakih Group’s approach of community engagement and eco-friendliness while making profits. I welcome the Group to enhance their presence further in Sri Lanka especially when at a time our tourism continues to surge,” said Rishad Bathiudeen, Minister of Industry and Commerce.

The minister expressed these sentiments on Monday in the aftermath of his meeting with N.P Fakih, the visiting Managing Director of the Dubai based, $ 300 million ‘Fakih Group’, the multicultural souvenir, gift and handicraft items supplier to 28 countries having manufacturing operations in 14 countries.

“We are looking for JVs but not in terms of capital equity but in terms of skilled handicraft-men. In fact, our approach is rural community engagement which is our global practice and as a result we are also known for CSR and charity. To this end we have already started a pilot project three years ago in Udaperadeniya in Kandy with 30 families and with only $ 230,000 which has become successful. We are now keen to expand further.” Fakih said.

According to Fakih, the group employs 5,300 employees across 14 countries, (considerable number of them being women in households on a self-employment basis), to supply the growing demand volumes in their 28 international markets. “The Group also uses kiosk vending model and in Dubai alone runs 28 kiosks. Among the 5,300 employees are 3,655 handicraft creators exclusively working for us in Asia.

Our basic approach is to encourage households in the countries we operate to supply eco-friendly items with creative designs portraying their culture or traditions. For example, we have encouraged the national flag waving tradition in some countries and now we have managed to cultivate this as a key habit in South Asian countries where its students, not only on the National Day, but to cheer even during special events such as sports festivals, buy tiny- national flags in the morning on their way to school designed by us.”

Among the countries supplying the more than 290,000 items strong Fakih Group multicultural gifts and souvenirs portfolio are UAE (467 items), Philippines (3,600 items), Thailand (22,467 items), Vietnam (11,359 items), Turkey (1,310 items), Morocco (12,290 items), Nepal (2,315 items), Cambodia (1,310 items), African collection (3,590 items), Indonesia (11,274 items), India (55,924 items), Egypt (1,936 items), Yemen (3,600 items) and China (160,128 items).

“We want to add Sri Lanka to our growing portfolio. Initially we will start by a few handicrafts with an investment of $ 3 million but later we want to expand. We do not want land, expensive raw material or money from Sri Lanka. We are only looking for handicraft skills mostly and are looking to build gift and handicraft items by paper and wood at first, thereafter by clay. Our raw material requirement here therefore is very basic but Sri Lankan handicraft skills being the most important input material we are looking for,” Fakih said.

Bathiudeen said, “We like Fakih Group’s approach of community engagement and eco-friendliness while making profits. I welcome the Group to enhance their presence further in Sri Lanka especially when at a time our tourism is booming, thanks to the leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Your entry to Sri Lanka is a sign of our tourism’s new outlook. We have a strong handicraft tradition historically and our workman’s skills are second to none.

I am pleased to inform you that we already have successful handicraft villages, among them are Battaramulla Folk Art Centre and Craft Village in Sigiriya. Wooden, handmade paper, brass-ware, pottery, textile and leather handicrafts are our leading items. Among other premium priced items are batik and silverware.

Another unusual raw material we offer is coir. Our wooden masks have now gained international appeal. Handicrafts and gift items play a key role in our Economic Development Minister Basil Rajapaksa’s efforts to enhance tourism and also his Divineguma back-yard economic unit development initiative where 2.5 million rural households will be strengthened towards self-sufficiency.”