Sri Lanka's Apex Organisation for Export Promotion
Sri Lanka’s participation at Expo 2020 Dubai is set in a spectacular manner to ensure the strengthening of the country’s trade, tourism, and investments. The Sri Lanka Export Development Board plays a critical role, together with private and state organisations, to landmark Sri Lanka’s presence at this global event.
The government has allocated Rs. 580 million to promote Sri Lanka’s exports, tourism and investment opportunities at Expo 2020 Dubai, which is expected to draw over 25 million visitors.
The Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB) in association with the National Research Council (NRC) held an awareness session on the NRC’s Public-Private Partnership (PPP) Programme on 29th July, 2019, at the EDB Auditorium targeting the exporter community. The aim of the session was to educate exporters about the modalities of the PPP programme.
“This Act is truly visionary; I wish other countries had this in their export development framework!”, remarked a senior official of the Geneva-based International Trade Centre to me some months back. He was referring to the ‘Sri Lanka Export Development Act No. 40 of 1979’, which marks 40 years this month. He had found it to be an institutional arrangement that was far ahead of its time, and is still having relevance today – not just for Sri Lanka, but also for other developing countries. And he would know, having worked on export development strategies for over a dozen countries around the world.
To help Sri Lankan companies eyeing the daunting Indian market, the International Trade and Development Strategies Ministry yesterday launched a new report to assist breaking into India, with Minister Malik Samarawickrama undertaking a visit to India this week to help local businesses find success across the Palk Strait.
The Sri Lanka Export Development Board [EDB] which turned 40 years on 1st August is the premier state organization for the development and promotion of exports. The Board plays myriad roles in the export sector of the economy, as a Policy Advisor, Monitor, Promoter, Facilitator and Knowledge Provider in carrying out its responsibilities of implementing strategies for achieving national export targets.
EDB in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Association of Manufacturers and Exporters of Rubber Products (SLAMERP) and Plastic and Rubber Institute of Sri Lanka (PRISL) organized a two day workshop in July 2018 on Product Innovation, Technology and R&D to upgrade the knowledge of the tyre manufacturers/exporters by obtaining the services of Technical Experts from India. The first collaborative tyre workshop was conducted successfully with the participation of over 100 technical personnel of leading tyre manufacturing & exporting companies in Sri Lanka.
Despite global and local challenges, Sri Lanka’s merchandised and service exports have risen by 11.4% to $ 8.5 billion in the first half of this year, prompting the Government to attribute it to a series of development efforts and assure further support. Releasing the latest yet provisional data, Development Strategies and International Trade Minister Malik Samarawickrama said yesterday that export sector performance was commendable, though he admitted there is significant scope for higher value. “The 11.4% growth, despite the impact of the October 2018 undemocratic constitutional coup, and the Easter Sunday tragedy, as well as global challenges, is very satisfactory. For the first time, three months of first half of 2019 - January, March and June - have produced over $ 1 billion worth of merchandised exports. We had originally set an ambitious $ 20 billion target for 2019, but we may miss it and end up at around $ 18.5 billion, which will be still higher than the $ 16 billion achieved last year,” Samarawickrama said.
The Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB) has been conducting the Exporters’ Forum since its inception from late 70s. The EDB has identified the need of a common platform to discuss and resolve the issues faced by the exporter community in Sri Lanka in order to facilitate exporters to overcome constraints arising from policy and operational issues created by various institutes that regulate, operate, and facilitate cross border trade. The EDB as the nation’s prime institute to facilitate export development created this mechanism to enable exporters to submit their issues to the highest levels of state institutions that cannot be reached easily by a trader. The unique feature of the Exporters’ Forum is the participation of the private sector and the public sector to resolve issues, with the political leadership represented by the relevant minister together with direct ministry-level interventions providing solutions to address those issues.
EDB in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Association of Manufacturers and Exporters of Rubber Products (SLAMERP) and Plastic and Rubber Institute of Sri Lanka (PRISL) will be organizing a two (2) day workshop on Tyre Compounding and Tyre Technology to upgrade the knowledge of the industry on technological advancements in the global tyre industry by obtaining the services of International Technical Experts from India on 25th &26th July 2019 at Hotel Taj Samudra, Colombo. This is the second such workshop to be organized as a follow up to the first workshop in 2018 on Product Innovation, Technology and R&D, for Sri Lankan Tyre Manufacturing Industry.
The Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB) is planning to hold the 23rd Presidential Export Awards Ceremony under the patronage of President Maithripala Sirisena on 19 September at the BMICH
The first workshop on “Productivity Improvement for Rubber Small Holders through Adaptation of Modern Technology” was successfully concluded by EDB in collaboration with Ministry of Plantation Industries, RDD & RRI in Kegalle on 31st May 2019 for 40 selected small holder rubber farmers.
The Eighth seminar for the Ratnapura District entrepreneurs on the national program of developing 2000 New Exporters was held on June 07, 2019 at the Kethumathi Hotel, Ratnapura,
2019-05-31/ http://www.dailynews.lk/2019/05/30/finance/186947/productivity-improvement-programs-rubber-smallholders-kegalle
EDB together with the Ministry of Plantation Industries, RDD and the RRI be organized a series of workshops to give small holder farmers the necessary awareness and knowledge on productivity improvement through adaptation of modern technology in the year 2019.
2019-05-22/ http://www.ft.lk/business/Messe-Duesseldorf-bullish-on-promoting-industrial-products-of-Sri-Lanka/34-678606
Reinforcing Germany’s support to Sri Lanka in need of the hour, world’s leading trade fair organiser Messe Duesseldorf GmbH announced plans to promote ‘Made in Sri Lanka’ as a quality brand and build the country’s industrial products in the international arena.
Transforming Sri Lanka into the hub of the Indian Ocean, with a knowledge-based, highly competitive and social-market economyis the objective of the Vision 2025 policy document of the Government.Making the transistion to anexport, FDI and tourism orientedcountry is the only optionfor Sri Lanka to create better jobs for the youth of our country and to graduate to a higher income economy.
As per the instructions of the Hon. Malik Samarawickrama, Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade, Export Development Board organized a meeting with the key Exporters and Investors on Friday 03rd May 2019 at the 3rd Floor Auditorium to discuss the current situation of the country.
Mr. Eric Le Corre, Corporate Vice President Public Affairs, Michelin and Ms. Nandita Khurana ,Zone Head – Legal, Michelin met the Chairperson & Chief Executive at the EDB on 7th March 2019 to explore opportunities in the tyre sector. H.E. Eric Lavertu, Ambassador of France, Mr. Herve Sarnelli, Economic Counsellor, Mr. Prabhash Subasinghe, President, SLAMERP and Mr. Ananda Caldera, Member, EDB Advisory Committee were also present at the discussion.
The Embassy of Sri Lanka in Brazil successfully organised a three-day trade and tourism promotional event in Sao Paulo, the commercial capital of Brazil, from 20 to 22 February. The event drew the interest of a large number of prominent Brazilian importers, trade consultants, officials of trade associations, travel journalists and travel trade industries based in Sao Paulo.
The National Export Strategy (NES) is progressing in the right direction. It has six focused areas and is expected to provide the impetus for the export drive supporting economic growth, Chairperson of the Export Development Board (EDB), Indira Malwatte said.
