Sri Lanka USA Business Council to promote trade and investments from USA to Sri Lanka
The Sri Lanka USA Business Council is to align its activities with the objectives of the US Embassy, USAID and the Board of Investment (BOI) in Sri Lanka to promote trade and investments from the USA to Sri Lanka.
President, Sri Lanka USA Business Council, Asanka Rathnayake has reportedly said at its third AGM held earlier this week that USA is an important trading partner for Sri Lanka with exports to America reaching USD 3.08 billion and USD 645.39 million imports coming into the country in 2018 from the US.
He has said that Sri Lanka was going through a challenging time, and they had observed policy reforms taking place for transparency, better governance, setting the right policies to attract investment and creating an environment of ease of doing business.
It has been noted that in this backdrop the business community too has a greater responsibility to maximize from the current opportunities ahead of them and turn them to revenue and employment generating economic activities.
“To support these efforts, we would like to play a role of a catalyst. I together with my committee will align our activities with the objectives of the US Embassy, USAID and the Board of Investment in Sri Lanka to promote trade and investments from the USA to Sri Lanka,” Rathnayake has been quoted as saying.
He has further stated that they were looking forward in working closely with the US Embassy in executing their plans. “Further, we will also work closely with the Exports Developments Board of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan Embassy in Washington D. C. to enhance exports from Sri Lanka to the US.”
Rathnayake has reportedly added that there were many benefits that Sri Lanka could achieve from world class US companies, may it be in terms of advanced technology or world class engineering solutions or business practices and so on.
OSL take:
Sri Lanka and the US enjoy strong bilateral and trade ties. Sri Lanka also enjoys the US GSP trade concession that has helped boost Sri Lanka’s exports sector. The US has always been a strong development partner of Sri Lanka and has proposed a US$ 480 million Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) Compact aimed at developing Sri Lanka’s highways, transportation and land reforms sectors. The two countries have strong business ties that have been further strengthened by US-Sri Lanka joint ventures. Sri Lanka’s geographical positioning in the Indian Ocean and the many trade agreements as well as trade concessions enjoyed by the country makes it an attractive business destination that could be explored by US businesses/investors looking for opportunities in the South Asian region.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/02082019/Z_8 |