Indian delegation holds discussions with BOI
The Board of Investment of Sri Lanka hosted a 13 member delegation
from the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) which included some of
the leading industrialists in India and briefed them on the
opportunities Sri Lanka offers investors as well as the country’s
rapidly improving business environment, thrust sectors for investment
and incentives offered to investors.
The CII delegation was on an official visit to Sri Lanka and had met
leading personalities both from the government and private sector. The
CII is one of the leading Indian chambers of commerce and Industry and
have regularly visited Sri Lanka with the purpose of expanding trade and
investment opportunities in the island.
Discussions with the BOI centered on possibilities of the Indian
companies investing in Sri Lanka’s automobile manufacturing sector, IT
industry, energy sector projects, real estate including the development
of integrated business cities, air –conditioning sector and beverages
production .
The Indian delegation expressed interest in finding out more about
the capacity of the BOI’s Export Processing Zones, particularly the new
zonal infrastructure that is currently being expanded and developed at
the Sooriyaweva and Mirijjawela, near Hambantota.
The delegation from CII included Chandrajit Banerjee, Director
General of CII; Rahul Bajaj, Past President of CII and Chairman of Bajaj
Auto Limited; SudhirDeoras, Deputy Chairman of CII (eastern region) and
Managing Director of TRF Limited; S.Chandrasekar, Managing Director ,
Bhoruka Power Corporation Ltd;V.K. Matthews, Chairman CII, Kerala State
Council and Executive Chairman IBS Software Services; Sunil Duggal, CEO
Dabur India Ltd; SatishJamdar, Managing director, Blue Star Limited;
Sunil Wadhwa, Chief Executive Officer, IL & FS Energy Development
Company; ShubShrivastava, Chief (global Business and strategy), The Tata
Power Company Ltd; Sangeeta Prasad, Chief Executive Officer, Mahindra
World City; SujithHaridas, Regional Director(southern region) CII and
Manish Mohan, Director and head South Asia , CII. The delegation was
accompanied by Manish, Counsellor (Economic & Commercial) and S.P Sapra
, Second Secretary (economic and Commercial) of the Indian High
Commission.
BOI was represented by Gowri Rajapaksa, Executive Director
(Investment) , Vidharshan Fernando, Director (Promotion & Mega
projects), Dilip S Samarasinghe , Director (Media & Publicity) and
W.U.K.M. A. Wijayakulathilake, Director (Investment).
Godahewa also said that in the past they have seen a negative
feedback about the capital market, however he emphasized that this would
be due to the lack of knowledge from the part of the general public .
“Most often people join the capital market to get profit, however since
they do not pay due attention to the stock brokers and due to the lack
of knowledge they are not profited,” he said.
Thus after a series of consultation SEC has now identified 10 key
areas to focus and are part of the road map for the next three years.
Expedite SEC Act amendments to be inline with IOSCO standards,
encourage more listings to increase liquidity, attract new funds,
develop infrastructure, develop the corporate market, intensify
education and awareness in the public, develop unit trusts, strengthen
risk management systems, develop new products and demutualize the CSE
from a member owned company to a company owned by shareholders in line
with international standards. “ most of this will be accomplished before
three years and some are already under action, “ Godahewa said.
President of Unit Trust, P. Ashokan, President, Colombo Stock Brokers
Association, Dimuthu Abeysekara, Acting Director General, SEC, prof
Hareendra Dissabandara, Chairman SEC, Dr. Nalaka Godahewa, Chairman CSE,
Krishan Balendra, C.E.O CSE, Surekha Sellahewa, President, Margin
Provides Association, Ajith Fernando at the press briefing |
