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By Charumini de Silva
MAS Holdings was awarded the Export Conglomerate of the Year award, while Brandix Apparel Ltd. won the Exporter of the Year award at the 23rd Presidential Export Award ceremony held yesterday under the patronage of President Maithripala Sirisena.
The awards ceremony, organised annually by the Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB), is the most important annual national event that recognises and honours Sri Lanka's export champions for their excellence in the 2018/2019 financial year. This year’s ceremony gave away 81 awards in total, including 14 overall awards, 42 sectoral awards and 33 merit awards.
Speaking at the ceremony, International Trade and Development Strategies Malik Samarawickrama said the accelerated development of Sri Lanka's economy required innovative thinking, bold policies and initiatives to transform the country into a prosperous nation while exports would continue to play a crucial role in that transformation.
"Export development is a top priority of our Government and it is now anchored by the National Export Strategy (NES) being implemented since last year. Our goal for the next three years is to increase exports to $ 28 billion by 2022. All of the award-winners and those exporters who have not won today are an integral part of achieving that goal," he said.
The Minister said Sri Lanka achieved $ 17 billion in merchandise and service exports last year and for 2019 the Government was working hard to reach $ 18.5 billion despite the multiple setbacks the country has faced. However, he said it was still good given that it would be a 30% increase from what was achieved in 2015.
Despite the tragedy of the Easter Sunday bombings and global challenges such as trade tensions around the world, the Minister said Sri Lankan exporters had done well and remained resilient.
"I want to thank them and congratulate them on their achievements," he asserted.
Identifying the next big challenge, Samarawickrama pointed out that building more Sri Lankan brands for overseas markets was what they ought to tackle.
"Now it is time for more brands from Sri Lanka to go out to the world. For this, our exporters must closely and cleverly identify the requirements of the markets they are targeting rather than taking a standardised approach. Sri Lankan brands must also be known for their commitment to high quality, high ethical standards and high sustainability credentials. That will be our unique differentiator,” he added.
The Minister also note that in order to have a shot at success, it was important to push forward reforms on trade, investment and the ease of doing business.
"The private sector must be supportive and be more open to new initiatives like FTAs. Government ministries and agencies cannot afford to work in silos and must be extremely collaborative with an eye on the bigger prize to be won and look beyond their own turf," he said.
Pointing out that export success did not happen in a vacuum, Samarawickrama said it occurred amidst an overall context of good governance, accountability and democracy.
"This is what our Government has strived to achieve over the past four years and we will continue to build on that. Contrary to popular belief, a governance model driven by authoritarianism and impunity won't propel our private sector. It may sound good, but it’s damaging to the country's private sector. It stifles innovation and breeds discrimination. In an era where international respect matters for economics, we cannot afford to be a pariah state —it hurts our exporters, it hurts our export brands,” he stressed.
The Minister reiterated that the Government remained committed to supporting the growth of exports and fostering an environment for local enterprises to be globally competitive.
International Trade and Development Strategies Deputy Minister Nalin Bandara Jayanatha said Sri Lanka was geared towards an export-oriented economy as exports had demonstrated remarkable progress during last three years.
“We are well on track to achieving the target of $ 28 billion in total exports by 2022. The Government, along with the private sector, will continue to introduce business-friendly economic policies and strategies to enhance the competitiveness aimed at diversifying the country’s export basket,” he added.
Outlining the range of initiatives the Government has embarked on over the past three years to support exporters from around the country, he said they ensured that the benefits of export-led development were felt islandwide.
"This year under the EDB's '2000 Exporter' initiative, 29 programs were completed benefiting 1,836 regional entrepreneurs. So far this program has created 60 direct and 75 indirect exporters with $ 12.9 million in new export earnings generated. This is complemented by the unique the 'One Village - One Product' program that will ensure inclusive export development and ensure greater participation by women in exports," he added.
The Deputy Minister also noted that the Government had implemented the ‘Market Access Support Program' to empower entrepreneurs.
“This scheme was a National Budget proposal announced in 2018 and we are happy to note the progress made so far. To date we have approved 95 enterprises to be supported and 42 of them have already received financial grants. This shift towards a more export-oriented economy, after years of being too domestic-economy-focused, is an important move in the right direction and it is in the direction of a more dynamic and private sector-oriented growth model,” Jayanatha said.
In addition, he said many exporters were exposed to international markets and buyers through participation in the world’s leading trade fairs including those in the United Kingdom, Germany, the US, Dubai and India under the guidance of the EDB.
Housing, Construction and Cultural Affairs Minister Sajith Premadasa outlined four areas the export sector must focus on for future development and asserted that Sri Lanka needed a strategic plan to attract Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs).
“Export or perish is my policy. There is a clear need to restructure our trade and investment policies where free trade zones are built with plug-and-play facilities,” he added.
The Minister’s four areas of focus were reducing input cost, using foreign direct investments (FDIs), leveraging free trade agreements (FTAs) for market access and maintaining a competitive exchange rate.
The Minister claimed that Sri Lanka had become one of the highest defector exporters in the world, with anti-export policies.
“Export is a crucial sector to develop our economy. However, we have not progressed from where we were in 1983. Since independence we have only been able to develop one manufacturing export sector and that is apparel,” he stressed.
He said the challenge today was to produce new products and reach out to new markets. However, in doing so, he noted it was important to abolish the politicised tax structure, which encourages corruption and introduce a single-window platform for taxes. The Minister also asserted introducing a land bank which was a critical factor in delaying many of the investment projects in the country to ensure ease of doing business.
Premadasa pointed out that political will, a time-bound action plan and an able team with qualified people were essential to drive Sri Lanka towards an export-oriented economy.
“The only thing stopping us from getting there is ourselves,” he said.
The Presidential Export Award was initiated in 1981 and is the most prestigious accolade recognising Sri Lankan exports for their significant contribution to the export development and economic growth of the country.
