Thursday Dec 12, 2024
Thursday Dec 12, 2024
Friday, 15 November 2013 01:05 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
By Cheranka Mendis and Shabiya Ali Ahlam
Goldshield International Business Development Director William Sibley
It has been a tremendous opportunity for innovative companies and new technologies that are interested in Sri Lanka. Sri Lankan people will benefit hugely from this conference.
We have a product which is a new formula. It is a foam hand sanitiser and a surface sanitiser which is completely water-based and has a prolonged effect, for example on a surface it will last for 30 days and as a hand sanitiser will be in effect for 24 hours. It is a great application for the healthcare sector and an opportunity to reduce infections. We are also looking to manufacture here in Sri Lanka.
We have meetings scheduled with the State Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Company. The opportunity here is to manufacture not only for Sri Lanka, but Sri Lanka would also have the opportunity to sell throughout Asia. It is a great trade transition.
We found the corporate responsibility session of great interest at the forum.
CommonAge Aged Care Development Advisor Stuart Flynn
We are from Australia and setting up a new association to offer services to people across the Commonwealth. This gave me excellent exposure to the countries that we wish to target.
The sessions that focused on the benefits of inbound investment demonstrated with facts and figures rather than general statements, which was of great interest to us. James Packer’s presentation was excellent in terms of giving that message across – the stats he provided didn’t lie and were pretty persuasive.
Commonwealth Business Council Company Secretary Neil Swan
It was great to see a group of business people getting together with people from governments, banks and other institutions and networking, discussing plans and what they want to do and what people need to do. This exchange is a fantastic way of advancing business.
We have had wonderful hospitality, it just couldn’t have been better. We have been extremely well looked after.
My Wardrobe Owner Saima Qureshi
I am a Pakistani living in Australia. I love Sri Lanka. I see a big difference from the Sri Lanka I saw 10 years ago in my first visit to this country. I am a fashion designer with a store in Melbourne, and from a fashion point of view I am on a hunting trip for Sri Lankan designers. My store is a multicultural store and I carry other designers and brands as well. Not many people from the fashion industry were here for the forum as I would have liked, but it has been great because I have been linked with some nice people. My trip has been well worth it in that regard. The platform organised here is such a big opportunity for entrepreneurs.
Hong Kong Island Federation Ltd. Chairman Wilfred Li
This is the first time I am attending a CBF. I find it excellent – the set-up, the arrangement, the speakers are all well arranged. We have made a lot of friends and met many business associates from different countries.
We are focused on how to make international trade easier. A lot of countries set up a lot of barriers and hurdles not to allow many goods from overseas. But they want to export.
I am a first timer in Sri Lanka although I have been to many SAARC countries and from my observations your country is very nice. Colombo especially is nice, and maybe due to this conference looks renewed. We hope this renovation is continued in the future.
Malaysian MP Senator Datuk Ropiaah Raja Abdullah
I found the women’s forum extremely interesting and beneficial. Apart from the networking we have established with many other countries, business women and leaders, we have also had very good insight into the possibilities of investment in Sri Lanka and many other countries.
We have spoken about having more FDIs coming in to the country to develop the economy and the possibility is there. There are great possibilities in many other areas as well. We haven’t really had time to go into detail but I hope we will be able to continue communicating with one another and look at possibilities within the Commonwealth. It is also a learning experience for us as we hope to host the business forum in Malaysia soon.
Attorney Dr. Jur. Hartmut Emanuel Kayser
I think it is a very good opportunity to showcase Sri Lanka. It is a very good thing that you have done here. Most sessions were really interesting and were put together quite well. I have taken with me a lot of impressions that I am sure will be very useful for future trade.
Federation of Malaysian Sri Lankan Organisation (Malaysia) President Sato’ Kulasegaran Sabaratnam
It is a very well organised forum and the facilities have been superb, people very nice and helpful and you have excellently showcased Sri Lanka.
Bearing in mind this is an international forum, I think there should have been a bit more international or Commonwealth content to the discussions. I found that a little short. We are here to discuss how the countries in the Commonwealth can cooperate in terms of various activities and I think we didn’t have enough of that. It is a lesson to be learnt for the future. This is what I genuinely feel.
More importantly, one-to-one networking has been very fruitful.
ATMC Nigeria Member Funke Filani
Sri Lanka is a very good place for tourism. The people here are very welcoming and they value relationship. In fact when I get back to my country I will tell my people that this is a place where one can invest as it is very accommodating. The opportunities are plentiful.
The President of Sri Lanka is highly welcoming and I see no discrimination. What I like the most is that the people are not proud. The culture and the nature of Sri Lanka are truly magnificent. I hope to come here every year, I am that impressed.
The Commonwealth Business Forum 2013 was entertaining for me. It was educative and supportive as well. Mentally it made me want to improve. It was great to meet leading business conglomerates and business people. It made me want to be one of them.
ATMC Nigeria President Ruth Olowokere
When you compare the Commonwealth Business Forum 2013 with the one that was held in Perth in 2011, Sri Lanka did really well. It attended to people very well and I see that they have spent a lot of money to make this a reality. This is much appreciated. I would like to thank the President of Sri Lanka, may God bless him, and I wish him best in continuing to bring more benefits to the country.
I find Sri Lanka fantastic for tourism. We were well entertained during our stay here. I am encouraged to come back and enjoy the hospitality of the country.
Consulate of Sri Lanka Rio De Janeiro Legal Advisor Eduardo Pereira De Oliveira
Sri Lanka is certainly a wonderful country and the hospitality is simply the best. This is my second time here. Previously I came here because I was hired to do some work with the Sri Lankan tea and spice companies. Now I am here to attend the Commonwealth Business Forum. It was very good and very profitable. I think I will have to come back to narrow the gap between Brazil and Sri Lanka.
I am quite confident that I will bring some Brazilians to Sri Lanka to do business. It truly is a wonderful country. We share the same history, the period that we were colonised by the Portuguese. We are almost like twin countries. I think Sri Lanka has everything to be one of the best countries in the world.
Export Promotion Council Kenya Director Mohamed Amir J. Merali
I cannot express how much I have enjoyed this country. It is beyond what I thought it would be. I go to India every year, but Sri Lanka is beyond my imagination. I am highly impressed with the people. The President of Sri Lanka was so humble, he would meet anyone. There were no security issues, we could meet and talk to him anytime while he was the opening of the forum.
The Commonwealth Business Forum 2013, I see a lot of opportunities for Sri Lankan business people in all parts of the world. I was talking to the owner of Sifani to come to establish in Kenya. We, the Export Promotion Council in Kenya, promote exports. We hope Sri Lankans will come to Kenya, do value addition and ship the finished goods to our neighbouring countries. When I invite Sri Lankans, I am thinking in terms of them exporting to other countries.
Managerial Leadership Director Organisational Psychologist Nathaniel Katz
I find Sri Lanka very nice, and as a matter of fact, I know it very well since I have been here many times. It is a magnificent country and amazing in terms of people and is very welcoming. Sri Lanka is adaptive and I see that it has great opportunities for growth and development for the people. I think this is highly important for the minority of the successful people and also for the entire population. I hope the outcomes of the Commonwealth will have an impact on the entire population of the country.
The Commonwealth Business Forum has been very resourceful and I think it is a great opportunity for collaboration. We have been exchanging a lot of business cards and to make it happen it is more difficult, but it’s a great start. I am looking to do a few things in Sri Lanka in terms of social development and I am also trying to promote businesses.
Kenya National Chamber of Commerce & Industry Chairman James N. Mureu
Sri Lanka is awesome. It has been a wonderful experience. All I can say is that I have the experienced the warmth of the people. I have experienced good, orderly people. The discussions that went on were absolutely spot-on.
What I realise is that no country can develop having a home-grown development agenda. We have seen that in the case of Sri Lanka, after 30 years of war, the progress achieved in just five years is really an example to the world. But you cannot afford to lose hope, and I have seen a lot of hope in the faces of the Sri Lankan people. My view is that Sri Lanka has a good President who has a clear vision for this country and all you need to do is rally behind him. He knows where he is taking the people of the country.
Business Professional Women (BPW) Malaysia Protem
President Rasila Hamzah
I attended the Commonwealth Business Forum in Perth in 2011 and I am comparing between the two as to how Australia and Sri Lanka managed the forum. I find that the hospitality of Sri Lanka is so great. So I compare the two and I love what is done in Sri Lanka. It is a beautiful country.
From the forum I learnt a lot, since I speak lot. I enjoyed the interaction and the learning from the various delegates as well as from the speakers. After this I may be an investor to Sri Lanka in the area of solar and wind energy.
Clarity Intel CEO Deb Leary
Sri Lanka is an amazing country; it is my first time here. The impact it has had on me is huge, purely because I have met such wonderful people and people who really want to do business and are interested in collaborating, which is really important.
For me it has been a really successful conference on two counts. Firstly, the fact that we had the Commonwealth Business Women Network here and many women from the Commonwealth attended it. We spoke about the new program that we are launching and the digital platform that we will be using for B2B. That was a fantastic success and we are now actively looking for corporate partners.
The second part is that for my own businesses, because I have a forensic company and I also have a due diligence and fraud investigations company. I have had some wonderful meetings with some ICT companies here and it looks like I will be doing business here in Sri Lanka.
Commonwealth Business Council Adviser, South Asia, Corporate Governance & Commonwealth Business Women Network Arif Zaman
I think it has been a phenomenal 72 hours for Sri Lanka. It was literally buzzing by the minute. The opportunities for Sri Lanka now at an international level are very significant and I think we have seen the people of Sri Lanka in a fresh light after the tragedy of the civil war. This is an opportunity that will help the country refocus and reinvigorate the relationships nationally at business level. We, the Commonwealth Business Council, are absolutely delighted that this has been probably the most successful business forum ever. We had 1,600 people registered from 95 countries here. All I have seen is that people were deal-making every minute.
We also held a session on economic empowerment for women. It was a good discussion and we identified the areas in which we will work. A key message is that Sri Lanka gave women political empowerment in 1991, and we hope and expect that this is the moment that Sri Lanka will give the Commonwealth business community economic empowerment for women.
Pix by Upul Abyasekara and
Lasantha Kumara
