Sri Lanka's Apex Organisation for Export Promotion
Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB) is planning to hold the 24rh Presidential Export Awards Ceremony for the financial years 2019/20 and 2020/21 on 26th November 2021 at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH) under the patronage of His Excellency the President, Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Sri Lanka’s exports have surpassed the $ 1 billion mark in July after four months’ time period where the similar achievement was only recorded in March during this year.
The Export Development Board (EDB) raised concerns on the shortage of containers as a result of multiple global supply chain bottlenecks.
The Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB) is collaborating with The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC), and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) supported Partnership for Accelerating Results in Trade, National Expenditure and Revenue (PARTNER) Activity to implement a capacity building programme for Development Officers attached to EDB.
The Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB) and Sri Lanka High Commission in New Delhi, India jointly organized an online briefing session with Amazon India (www.amazon.in) on 29th June, 2021, to explore the digital marketing opportunities available for the Sri Lankan exporters in the Indian market via the highly reputed e-commerce platform; amazon.in.
As per the latest statistics released by the Sri Lanka Customs, the export sector performance has been able to maintain its upward trend in June 2021 with exports increasing by 9.41 % to US$ 978.2 Mn compared to June 2020. This upward trend was evident year-on-year for the last four months.
Sri Lanka’s export sector performance has been able to managed its growth momentum in May 2021 with the challenges of this pandemic. “We are happy to see that export levels are reaching fast to the pre-Covid 19 levels despite the continuous multiple challenges faced by our exporters with intermittent travel restrictions and local area isolations. Maximum efforts are be taken to secure the export orders in hand while attracting new orders to the country – the responsibility of the authorities are to facilitate the exporters in every possible way to keep them operating”, Chairman, EDB.
The Consulate General of Sri Lanka to Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania together with the Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB) and the Sri Lanka and Australia Chamber of Commerce (SLACC) organised a webinar titled – Exporting to Australia – What you need to know - on the 20th May, 2021. Kalum De Silva, President of SLACC, moderated the session. He is the founding national president of SLACC.
EDB Chairman Suresh de Mel stated that the export target would certainly witness a revision due to the week-long travel restrictions that have come into effect and several areas being caught under the isolation. However, he said it is too premature to assess the impact or divulge the revised target. He noted that the revision is ‘absolutely necessary’.
Sri Lanka’s export performance continued its upward momentum in the first three months of 2021. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic induced lockdown last year, exports were contracted by a record 64.63 per cent in April 2020. However in April this year, exports grew up by 183 per cent to US$ 798.9 Mn in comparison to the previous year.
The Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB) has made arrangements to facilitate export-oriented industries based on the circulars issued by the Government Health Authorities to continue operations of their activities during lockdown of specific areas in the country and inter-provincial travel restrictions subject to stringent health regulations.
Sri Lanka surpassed $ 1 billion exports in March 2021 after a lapse of six months period. As per the Customs statistics, earnings from merchandise exports recorded double digit growth of 62.47% in March 2021 on y-o-y comparison – the March figure being US$ 1,066.1 Mn.
The EDB’s effort in developing and promoting export potential Women Entrepreneurs took a new turn when it established the “EDB Women Entrepreneur Cell” in 2017, with the main objective of linking women and their associated businesses to commercially viable opportunities and value chains across the world, enabling economic and community development.
Sri Lanka’s export earnings registered a growth of 2.52% with US$ Mn 993.73 in February, compared to the previous year, maintaining the growth momentum recorded during the last five months as per the provisional statistics released by Sri Lanka Customs. This is the highest export figure recorded for the month of February during the last five-year period.
The Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB) launched the first stage of its New Exporter Development Programme – Activities for 2021 by conducting an awareness workshop for entrepreneurs in Hambantota district at Hambantota District Secretariat Auditorium on 10th March. The first awareness workshop was conducted for selected 40 small and medium-sized entrepreneurs in the district with the objective of developing new exporters and creating awareness on opportunities in the export market.
The Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB) organized an Export Marketplace (Product Pitching) programme coinciding with the International Women’s Day with the objective of enhancing the export market penetration ability of export-potential women entrepreneurs registered under “EDB Women Cell” on 8th March, 2021, at the Auditorium of Hector Kobbekaduwa Agrarian Research and Training Institute (HARTI).
Hon. Bandula Gunawardana, Minister of Trade urged the whole stakeholders to actively engage in assisting all exporters of the country in every possible manner during this turbulent period enabling exporters to strengthen our economy.
Sri Lanka Export Development Board (SLEDB) new Chairman Suresh de Mel this week expressed confidence of giving the best shot at realising a near $ 16 billion target for 2021 despite domestic and global challenges. This confidence stems from a plethora of new initiatives as well as fine-tuning existing endeavours to develop and boost exports.
The US$ 13.5 billion export target set for merchandise export sectors in early 2020 remains challenging, requiring not only strong efforts from local enterprises, but also the recovery of global demand amid complicated Covid-19 situation. Amid severe impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, Sri Lanka’s merchandise exports remain at US$ 9.9 billion in 2020, which is a 104 % achievement from the revised forecast of US$ 9.5 billion.
