The Consulate General of Sri Lanka in Mumbai participated in the “Business Connect 2023” organised by the Indian Merchants Chamber of Commerce & Industry (IMC) in Mumbai.
The purpose of the event was to facilitate the interaction of officials, committee members and members of IMC with the Diplomatic Missions in Mumbai to explore possible opportunities in expanding trade, investment and tourism between participating countries and local business community of Maharashtra.
IMC is a long-standing business association in Mumbai, having been around since 1907. It has over 5000 members and works with over 150 trade groups. Most of the major business establishments and industrialists in Mumbai and the western region of India are members of the IMC. The Chamber’s core function during the present time is to provide policy inputs and to promote the interests of industry and economic growth of the country.
The consul general of Sri Lanka along with consul generals and representatives of other countries participated as speakers of the event to address an audience of top industrialists and businessmen of the Maharashtra region. In his address, consul general underlined the longstanding multifaceted bilateral ties between Sri Lanka and India and some of the major promotional activities that IMC has successfully completed in collaboration with the Mission.
The consul general highlighted India’s large economic footprint in Sri Lanka with around 65 major Indian companies investing across 35 sectors. He highlighted some of the noteworthy investments such as the Adani Group's port investments of USD 700 million and an additional investment of USD 400 million in the renewable energy sector. He also spoke about how Indian companies already have their mark in all sectors in Sri Lanka such as oil exploration, power generation, hospitals, telecom, banking and financial services, tourism, hospitality, vanaspathy, copper and other metals. The Consul General thanked the Indian investors for investing in Sri Lanka and informed the investors that despite the geopolitically driven political vicissitudes, Sri Lanka has proved its socio-economic resilience by attaining excellent socio-economic indicators with a decent amount of infrastructural development. He informed the investors of how the Sri Lankan government has refined the regulatory and legal framework in order to provide special incentives, exemptions, transparency and security to the investors.
Each Country’s Mission was allocated a stall for investment promotion, tourism promotion and B2B networking meetings. The consul general and Commercial consul Ariyarathne participated in the B2B networking session. Brochures that highlighted investment opportunities as well as details of bilateral treaties and Free Trade Agreements in Sri Lanka were distributed among the participants.
Consulate General of Sri Lanka
Mumbai
30 October 2023
