Maliban explores strategic investment and partnership opportunities in Thailand
Daily FT: The Embassy of Sri Lanka in Bangkok successfully facilitated a recent visit by a high-level delegation from Maliban Biscuit Manufactories Ltd. to Thailand.
The visit aimed to explore investment opportunities and establish strategic partnerships within the Thai market, marking a significant step in Maliban’s global expansion strategy.
To support Maliban’s mission, the Embassy organised several high-level engagements. A key highlight was a meeting with senior officials of the Thailand Board of Investment (BOI), where discussions focused on potential investment avenues, available incentives, and regulatory frameworks for setting up manufacturing operations in Thailand. Maliban expressed a strong interest in utilising Thailand as a strategic hub to access broader regional markets.
The delegation also visited the Faculty of Agro Industry at Kasetsart University to explore advanced fruit drying technologies that could be integrated into Maliban’s production processes. Discussions centred on potential collaboration in research and technical applications. The university expressed readiness to pursue future cooperation and joint research initiatives to support Maliban’s product innovation and value addition.
Another key engagement was with Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group, Thailand’s largest private conglomerate with diversified operations across 14 business sectors in 21 countries. The delegation held productive discussions with the CP Group’s senior management to assess export potential and distribution opportunities.
During the meeting, Ambassador of Sri Lanka to Thailand Wijayanthi Edirisinghe emphasised the importance of strengthening private sector partnerships to enhance bilateral trade between Thailand and Sri Lanka. She encouraged greater investment collaboration between the two countries, highlighting the mutually beneficial opportunities available in both markets.
OSL take:
The fact that Sri Lanka’s manufacturing and exports sectors are on a steady growth path is evident by the local businesses exploring expansion opportunities in foreign markets. It is in such a backdrop that Sri Lanka’s Maliban is exploring expansion opportunities in Thailand. With Sri Lanka on a steady growth path targeting on becoming a hub in the South Asian region, the overall expansion of the country’s economy has resulted in the growth, profits and expansion of Sri Lankan businesses. These factors are also indicative of the increasing business/investment opportunities in all key economic sectors in the country and the increasing interest shown by foreign businesses/investors further indicate that Sri Lanka is now an emerging business destination in the region with strong trade ties with many foreign countries. Given all these factors, foreign businesses/investors while exploring the expanding business/investment opportunities in Sri Lanka, could also look at further expanding operations through partnerships or joint ventures with local businesses. The fact that many local businesses are already engaged in overseas expansion projects are indicative of the strength and growth of local businesses in Sri Lanka and that they are thereby lucrative ventures for strong foreign partnerships.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/20250702/Z_6 |