Top German biz delegations to visit Sri Lanka

Several top German business delegations would visit Sri Lanka this year, to promote bilateral trade and look for investment opportunities in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka's Ambassador in Germany, Sarath Kongahage, speaking to Daily News Business, said that the first delegation would be from the German Asia Business Council.

“We expect a minimum of 75 members to be included in this delegation, which makes it the largest single team from Germany to visit Sri Lanka to promote business in recent times,” he said.

The team which would be in Sri Lanka for one week, would hold one to one business meetings and also explore investment opportunities. “We are currently planning out the least few details for their visit,” he said.

The German Diplomatic Council too would subsequently field a business delegation to Sri Lanka. This would be a member team.

Kongahage said that one of the key areas the visiting members would be interested in, would be tourism. “They would be looking at setting up hotels on the beach frontage and also look at joint ventures,” he said. Wellness tourism would be another area of interest for them.

Since Germany is a technically developed country, they may look at mega projects as well. Already several key German companies have set up factories in the KIPZ.

Another German Group too would visit Sri Lanka to conduct a workshop on medical tourism.

Kongahage said that for the first time, he too initiated through their Consular General Pradeep Jayawardane, to set up a German - Sri Lanka Business Council in Frankfurt, considered the business hub of the country. “Members of these newly formed associates is also planning a visit towards the latter part of the year,” he said.

Since Germany and Sri Lanka are celebrating 60 years of independence this year, hosts of trade, musical, food festivals and exchange programmes are being planned.

Commenting on the recently concluded Sri Lanka Business delegation's visit to Sri Lanka, he said it was very successful with over 600 members participating. This was also attended by Minister of Trade Promotion, Rishad Bathiudeen. “These visits planned by Sri Lanka, are subsequent to this event,” he added.

He said that German arrivals to Sri Lanka were increasing and last year it had gone up by 28% and this has to be bettered this year.

The Ambassdor also disclosed that plans were underway to refurbish the Ambatale Water Purification Plant with the assistance of the German KFW bank.