Govt targets US$ 10 b export revenue by 2015

Shirajiv SIRIMANE

For the first time the National Chamber of Commerce (NCE) will introduce a special award to honour High Tech value addition from next year.

Geoffrey Tillekeratne, Director Member Services NCE said that its disappointing to note that only 1.5 % of total exports are High Tech value added products.

“We hope that with the introduction of this award more exporters would be encouraged to more into high tech exports,” he said.President of NCE Dr Jagath Peiris said that last year Sri Lanka export value was US $ 10 billion and by 2015 the government targets US $ 15 billion and by 2020 US $ 20 billion.

The unveiling the NCE Export Awards Trophy by Dr. Jagath Peiris – President NCE, Chandika Vitharana – Senior General Manager – Sales and Distribution Mobitel (Pvt) Ltd, Patrick Amarasinghe – President Emeritus, Mangala P. B. Yapa – Vice President, Sarada M. De Silva – Vice President, Ganaka Amarasinghe – Incoming Chairman, Panel of Judges, Rasa Weerasingham – Executive Director NCE, L. S. G. Tillakaratne – Director Members Services NCE and Chairman – Awards Committee and Shiham Marikkar – Director Trade Promotion – NCE at Colombo Hilton. Picture by Ranjith Asanka

He said that this helped the rupee to stabilize and if market forces were given to determine ratio the US $ dollar would have gone beyond Rs 150.

He said that though there is a drop of exports in the first few months of this year.

This would be corrected with exports being diverted to new markets, where recession would not have an impact. Pieris also said that exporters also have to cope with high freight rates, cross rates and high tech competitors from other countries. I think Sri Lanka's success is with value addition,’ he said.

This year's National Chamber of Exporters of Sri Lanka's (NCE) 20th Annual NCE Exports Awards would be held on September 21.

The Annual Export Awards conducted by the NCE, is a high profile and looked forward to event in the business calendar of Sri Lanka.

Special gold awards are given to the best Sri Lankan Brand Exporter, the Best Woman Exporter, the Most Innovative Exporter and the Most Value Adding Exporter.

The most coveted award is the Gold Award won by the “Most Outstanding Exporter” of the year. This year’s main sponsor of the event is Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel.

Principal sponsors are Bank of Ceylon, Sampath Bank Plc, Sri Lanka Credit Insurance Corporation, Sri Lanka Ports Authority,Union Bank of Colombo Ltd. Print media sponsor is Ceylon Daily News, Electronic media sponsors are Channel 1 MTV,Sirasa TV/FM, MTV Sports, Shakti TV/FM,Yes FM and Y FM Also see page xvi