FCCISL hosts two-day workshop

The Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL in cooperation with the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the Confederation of Asia Pacific Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CACCI) conducted a practicable and operational two-day workshop on Key Elements of Foreign Contract of Sale, Delivery terms, Best Practices on Incoterms 2010 and Best Practices on Documentary Credits for Import and Export.

Drawing the participants from banks, leading exporters, importers, traders, freight forwarders, Insurances and trade consultants, the event successfully launched on 23 February at Sovereign – Corporate Hotel, Rajagiriya.  

In today´s open and competitive global economy, multiple economic actors are increasingly engaged in the complex and interrelated world trade.

 The mere survival in the world of commerce is highly depended on the ability of trade practitioners to engage effectively in import and export operations and allied fields.

Foreign trade involves significant and numerous risks, if not carried out with proper knowledge and techniques. The workshop provided the participants with the opportunity to learn how to mitigate these risks effectively and avoid many of them even fully or partially and take appropriate measures.

In this context the two-day workshop is aimed to disseminate deep, focused and updated knowledge and techniques on international rules, standards and the practices of entire gamut of international trade finance in order to be better equipped the stakeholders with modern knowledge to be successful in their everyday business.

The first day workshop topics included key elements of contract of sale, delivery and payment obligations by the sellers and the buyers, delivery terms, best practices in using Incoterms 2010 and main issues relating to international transport, cargo insurance and associated documentation. The second day of the workshop focused on documentary credit cycle, responsibilities of the bank, export and import documentation, minimising the risk involved in documentary credit, multimodal transport document, insurance document and sharing of experiences through a practical session.

Addressing at the inauguration FCCISL President Kumar Mallimaratchi stated that this is an attempt to fill the gap between up-to-date knowledge, techniques on international rules and standard and the conventional approaches of industry practitioners.

Further he expressed gratitude to the sponsors of the programme, the Bank of Ceylon and the Nations Trust Bank for the support extended to make this event a reality.

He welcomed all the participants while thanking organisations who have sent their representatives for the programme identifying the importance of attending to such knowledge refreshing programmes.  

Pavel Andrle the key resource person is a specialist in this trade. He is an international trade finance consultant and a lecturer, working for a number of leading local and international banks in various positions lecturer in documentary credits, bank guarantees and trade finance.

 Andrle is an active trainer under Global Trade Finance program of International Finance Corporation (IFC). Introducing the resource person Sam Stembo, National Project Director of FCCISL CHEER Project/Acting Secretary General, was in the view that Andrle is one of the most competent resource person backed by years of hands on experience in the field with the capacity to interact with participants who are senior level practitioners from different industries.

This two-day knowledge transfer is a combination effort of the Training Division and the International Affairs Division of FCCISL.