11-member team from CII for Commonwealth Biz Forum
Wednesday, 13 November 2013 00:00
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An 11 member high-level Business Mission from the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is visiting Colombo from 11-14 November 2013 to participate in the Commonwealth Business Forum. This will be the fifth business delegation from CII to visit Sri Lanka in the recent years.
The Business Mission is led by CII President and Infosys Ltd. Co-Founder and Executive Vice Chairman S. Gopalakrishnan. The delegation includes Confederation of Indian Industry past President and Bajaj Auto Ltd. Chairman Rahul Bajaj; Standard Chartered Bank Regional Chief Executive Officer (India and South Asia) Sunil Kaushal; Indo-British Consulting Founder and Chief Executive Officer Arun Bedi; Repro India Ltd. Chairman Vinod Vohra; Cadila Pharmaceuticals Ltd. Chairman and Managing Director Dr. Rajiv I. Modi; Repro India Ltd. Executive Director Mukesh Dhruve; Coaching Foundation India Ltd. Chairman Pradipta K. Mohtapatra; Confederation of Indian Industry Deputy Director General Supriya Banerji; and Confederation of Indian Industry Director and Head-South Asia and Central Asia Manish Mohan.
During the visit, the Indian business delegation will participate in the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Business Forum scheduled to be held at the Hotel Cinnamon Grand on 12 November with the keynote address by the President of Sri Lanka on ‘Partnering for Wealth Creation and Social Development’.
Rahul Bajaj will chair the session on ‘The Commonwealth, Indian Ocean and SAARC: Building New Partnerships’. S. Gopalakrishnan would deliver a speech in the session leading the Indian business delegation to the CBF. In the afternoon, the Indian delegation will call on Government of Sri Lanka Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen, followed by a meeting with the High Commissioner of India.
The business delegation is also expected to call on some other Sri Lankan and foreign dignitaries during the visit. A CII-Standard Chartered Bank special session on ‘Developed Markets v/s Emerging Markets: Impact of the Current Global Economy on Emerging Global Trade Corridors’ will also be held on the morning of 13 November.
CII is a non-government, industry-led and industry-managed body representing over 8,100 organisations (direct membership) from the private and public sectors, SMEs and MNCs, and an indirect membership of over 90,000 companies from around 400 national and regional sectoral associations. It was founded 117 years ago and works closely with the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce to foster business and economic linkages between India and Sri Lanka.
Minister of Commerce, Industry and Textiles of India Shri Anand Sharma has extended an invitation to Rishad Bathiudeen to participate in ‘The Partnership Summit 2014 – Emerging Global Value Chains: Building Partnerships’ which is scheduled to be held from 27 – 29 January 2014 in Bengaluru, Karnataka. This important annual international event is organised by the CII and a delegation from Sri Lankan business community led by Bathiudeen is expected to participate in the forthcoming Summit.
In addition to the 13-member CII CEOs Mission, over 20 Indian companies are also expected to participate in the ‘Reflection of Sri Lanka: Exposition on Trade, Tourism and Investment’ scheduled to be held parallel to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) from 13-17 November 2013 at the Jana Kala Kendra, Battaramulla. The Indian companies will display a wide range of engineering machinery and equipment in the Exhibition.
