Tourism, sugar, energy and oil lead the landmark Prague-Colombo biz MoU

Saturday, 9 November 2013 06:17 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Nuclear power firm Kralovo Polska and Central Europe’s biggest engineer Vitkovie among visiting Czech investors
MoU action plan in first year: Kuzel
Partner with Lanka, the gateway to South Asia: Rishad

An interesting mix of sectors -energy, oil and gas, sugar and tourism- lead the first ever biz MoU between Prague and Colombo. “We are opening a new biz partnership between both countries with today’s MoU between Prague and Colombo. The MoU is active from today itself. Our priority sectors during the first year are hydro power, solar power, oil and gas, tourism, and sugar refining,” said Economic Chamber of Commerce of Czech Republic President Petr Kuzel on 6 November in Colombo. Chamber President Kuzel was addressing Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen during their one-on-one meeting on the side-lines of MoU signing between the Chamber of Commerce of Czech Republic and National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka. Also present during the session was Secretary, Ministry of Industry and Commerce Anura Siriwardena. The MoU between both Chambers were inked by National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka President S.G. Wijesinha and Kuzel. A B2B session between Sri Lankan firms and Czech firms followed the signing of MoU. Among the Czech firms at the B2B session were ANS CZ (air navigation services), Czech Airlines Training, Czech Export Bank (specialised state-owned but shareholder held bank for export financing), Kralovo Polska RIA (engineering including nuclear power plants), MPI Group (military solutions provider), Olive Hill Development (large group in industry, transport, construction, real estate and hotel industry), Prague Investment Corporation S.R.O (commercial and real estate developer), ZVU Potez (sugar production), Becker & Poliakoff (legal), Remdox Investment (investment, legal, tax and management consulting), and Vitkovie India Power Ltd. (biggest engineering group in Central Europe). Chamber President Kuzel apprising Minister Bathiueen said: “Prague’s Czech Chamber of Commerce is the biggest employer in the Czech economy, claiming 60% of Czech GDP. We have more than 14000 members in corporate and SME scales in all industry and

business sectors. “We are proud to partner with Sri Lanka’s National Chamber of Commerce which has 600 corporate and 2000 SME members of its own. We are opening a new biz partnership between both countries with today’s MoU between Prague and Colombo. “The MoU is active from today itself. Our priority sectors during the first year are hydro power, solar power, oil and gas, tourism, and sugar refining. We shall move to other sectors thereafter. We will go back and will hold special talks with our members in Prague and decide these sectors. The principles of implementation of this MoU are important. Both teams should meet up and discuss the action plan for the first year in our next meeting, which is to be scheduled.” Minister Bathiudeen, responding to Chamber President Kuzel said: “We thank you for your investment interest in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is the gateway to South Asia. You are entering Sri Lanka at a good time when we see a promising climate for FDI. “The ‘Reflection of Sri Lanka’ event at the forthcoming CHOGM is one of the best platforms we are creating to highlight our exports, tourism and investment potentials and we invite a strong Czech team for this event. “This will also be an opportunity for Czech biz to see our machinery and SME sectors as well. We also invite Czech investors to consider our mineral sands, graphite mining for joint ventures in value addition.” Both Minister Bathiudeen and Czech Chamber President Kuzel also discussed on trade and other avenues of cooperation between export and business communities of both countries.