Lanka, Belgium bilateral trade reaching $ one bn mark

As Sri Lanka-Belgium bilateral trade closes in on $ one billion mark for the first time, Sri Lanka’s 11th largest global trade partner and also the first ranked country in Europe for logistics investments and distribution in Europe, Belgium, is readying to expand trade and investment partnership with Sri Lanka in a significant manner.

“We warmly welcome the first ever Wallonian business and investment delegation to Sri Lanka this week led by AWEX. This is also a major development in Sri Lanka – Belgium relations which goes back to 1864,” said Rishad Bathiudeen, Minister of Industry and Commerce.

Wallonia, called as the ‘heart’ of Europe and located at ‘the crossroads of the most advanced region of Western Europe’ claiming one fifth of Belgium’s GDP, is the wealthy southern region of Belgium. Having access to the huge 375 million European consumer market within an eight hours’ drive, Wallonia has the densest multimodal communication infrastructure and the densest road network infrastructure in the world, and has set a new target to become Europe's most attractive logistics hub by 2020. Wallonia is served by four airports and is the platform of upcoming high speed cargo train Carex, scheduled to commence operations in 2015. Wallonia’s Foreign Trade and Investment Agency (AWEX) is the Belgium government’s powerful arm in charge of economic development of Wallonia across the globe.

This week’s delegation is led by Philippe Suinen, the medal winning and widely known CEO of AWEX. Also in the delegation are reps from the private sector, Lierge Airport (the seventh biggest cargo airport in Europe), and several AWEX officials including the Trade Commissioner Kathlijin Fruith.