Chengdu to fortify furniture biz in Lanka

A group of businessmen from the Chengdu Association of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation of China have evinced keen interest in manufacturing furniture in Sri Lanka for not only for the Sri Lankan market but also for export to India under the Indo Lanka Free Trade Agreement and the rest of the region. 

This follows the Memorandum of Understanding that the Chengdu Association of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation has signed with the International Business Council of Sri Lanka (IBC) in June 2017 and there have been two reciprocal visits by both sides to each others’ countries since then. 

These Chinese businessmen will also export furniture to Sri Lanka from China to meet the growing demands here for both household and office furniture and especially in the leisure sector, IBC President Kosala Wickremanayake said in a media release. 

There will be a team of 20 businessmen from Chengdu who will be in Colombo from November 13 till 15 who will aim to find Sri Lankan businessmen for joint venture projects here and that will be for other lines of business in addition to furniture, he said.

The Chinese group will also be doing a tour of the Hambantota Port to explore the investment opportunities while also having a meeting with the Board of Investment in Colombo as well.

They will be meeting members of the Colombo business community at Hilton Colombo at 9:30 a.m. on 15 November.

Meanwhile, a 10 member IBC delegation led by Wickremanayake left for Chengdu last night to have back to back meetings with their counterparts there, also on prospects of bringing investors to Colombo. 

Wickremanayake also said that air connectivity between Colombo and Chengdu were further buttressed with Air China having direct flight between the two cities. 

He also said that Chengu city which is within the Sichuan Province was the fastest growing economic region in the world with a large number of Fortune 500 companies listed there and operating commercially. So the prospects for Sri Lankans to merge industrial and commercial synergies will be great, he said.