A virtual meeting was organized by the High Commission of Sri Lanka in Pretoria on 10 December 2020 between High Commissioner-designate of Sri Lanka to Republic of South Africa Sirisena Amarasekara and the Honorary Consuls of the accredited countries to the High Commission. The Honorary Consuls warmly welcomed the new High Commissioner and extended their well wishes to the Government of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lanka Mission in Pretoria.
Addressing the meeting, the High Commissioner-designate stated that the priority policies of the present government attribute special attention to the economic co-operation with the African Region. Furthermore, he highlighted that the South African Countries are not far from Sri Lanka in terms of logistics, but need to change our mindset to promote the bi-lateral trade.
Honorary Consul to Malawi Ranjan Perera elaborated on the business opportunities available in the Apparel, Mining, Energy and Agricultural sectors while inviting the Sri Lankan businesses to collaborate with the Malawian industries. He suggested that there is a need to develop and implement a web portal to upload all tenders and projects in the SADC region by the respective consular offices. He predicted that will facilitate businesses in Sri Lanka in gaining access to reliable information and call for their participation. He further added that Malawi has the second largest Sri Lankan diaspora in Africa and Sri Lankan expatriates in Malawi are working in industries such as hospitality, farming whilst accountants are the top professionals contributing from Sri Lanka side.
According to Honorary Consul to Zambia and the Group Chief Executive Officer of LOLC Group – Africa Region Elmo Jayetileke, the business opportunities are available in construction industry and currently few Sri Lankan companies are in the negotiation process to access the Zambian market for pharmaceuticals products and plantation sector. Also, he said that Sri Lankan professional accountants are working for the Zambian companies. Honorary Consul to Botswana Priyalal De Silva explained the niche market opportunities available in the country specially focused on the Asian expatriates and highlighted the problem of high logistic cost to have a low trade volume between two countries
Honorary Consul to Mozambique Vali Hassam emphasized the importance of realizing the business opportunities by the Sri Lankan exporters and joint venture seekers in mining, agriculture & fisheries. Further he recapped the necessity of having close bi-lateral relationship to enhance the trade between two countries.
The meeting was concluded with the expectation of exploring the new business and joint venturing opportunities comprehensively, emerged during in the post COVID situation.
High Commission of Sri Lanka
Pretoria
11 January 2021
