Airtel powers the Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2011

Bharti Airtel Lanka (Pvt) Ltd, has announced the Platinum sponsorship of the Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2011. The Summit, which is the foremost business forum in Sri Lanka, is organised by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce for the 12th consecutive year. This is Airtel’s third consecutive year as Platinum Sponsor of the event. Scheduled for 4-5 July, at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel, Colombo, the conference will focus on “Driving growth through fast track implementation”.

Bharti Airtel Lanka Managing Director and CEO Amali Nanayakkara said: “As Sri Lanka steadily surges ahead towards an era of excellence, the strides already taken to become a key force in Asia are very encouraging. Given the prevalent opportunity for growth, we believe that a healthy public-private sector dialogue to accelerate the development of multi-dimensional socio economic platforms will undoubtedly enhance the quality of national development further. We are delighted therefore, to be able to facilitate the meeting of some of the best minds in Sri Lanka through the support extended to the Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2011.”

To stimulate debate and arrive at far reaching initiatives to drive multi sector growth opportunity, a number of eminent public and private sector personalities will participate in the summit.

Among them are Dr. P. B. Jayasundera, Secretary to the Treasury, and Secretary, Ministry of Finance and Planning, who will deliver a key note address at the inauguration; Ajith Nivard Cabraal, Governor, Central Bank of Sri Lanka; Dr. Indrajit Coomaraswamy, former Director Economic Affairs, Commonwealth Secretariat; Malik Cader, Director General, Securities and Exchange Commission of Sri Lanka (SEC); Dr. Nalaka Godahewa, Chairman, Sri Lanka Tourism and a host of other distinguished personalities.  Dr. Anura Ekanayake, Chairman of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce said:  “As opportunity for development enhances, so is the need to accelerate its pace in line with the national vision to become yet another vibrant Asian community.

The Sri Lanka Economic Summit will facilitate the commendable intention of charting an accelerated approach to the rational course for progress in Sri Lanka. We would like to thank Airtel for partnering with us and enabling the gathering of Sri Lanka’s elite intellectual resources to actively participate and address challenges and emerging issues that lay ahead in the path of driving enhanced growth for development.”

The Summit will present topics on attracting investments — The ease of doing business, Financial sector challenges, Growth opportunities in tourism, ICT/ BPO, Higher education and skills, and host a number of breakout sessions ranging from Logistics (ports, shipping and aviation), Agriculture, Plantations and food security, Health care and health insurance, Construction, and a special session on Breaking the bottlenecks in development.

Bharti Airtel Lanka (Pvt) Ltd. commenced commercial operations of services in Sri Lanka on 12 January, 2009, and was the fastest operator to reach the one million customer mark in Sri Lanka.

With its network footprint panned out across the country in less than two years from launch, Airtel has emerged as Sri Lanka’s fastest expanding network. Granted a licence in 2007, in accordance with the Sri Lanka Telecommunications Act No. 25 of 1991, it is also a registered company under the Board of Investment in Sri Lanka.

Under the licence, the company provides digital mobile services to Sri Lanka inclusive of voice telephony, voice mail, data services and GSM based services. All of these services are provided under the Airtel brand. To know more, visit www.airtel.lk.

Bharti Airtel Limited is a leading global telecommunications company with operations in 19 countries across Asia and Africa.  The company offers mobile voice and data services, fixed line, high speed broadband, IPTV, DTH, turnkey telecom solutions for enterprises and national and international long distance services to carriers.

Bharti Airtel has been ranked among the six best performing technology companies in the world by BusinessWeek.  Bharti Airtel had over 226 million customers across its operations at the end of May 2011.

Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Established in 1839, is the oldest Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka, serving a wide ranging membership that covers every sphere of the economy.