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Tuesday, 12 November 2013 01:25 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The bustling yet peaceful Colombo will buzz trade and investments within Commonwealth and especially Sri Lanka starting today, with an unprecedented participation at the three-day influential Business Forum.
A record 1,500 delegates are expected to participate in the three-day Commonwealth Business Forum, which will be inaugurated by President Mahinda Rajapaksa today at the Cinnamon Grand Colombo.
Organisers told the Daily FT that as opposed to the original target of 1,000, which some doubted Sri Lanka would achieve, the final registered count is an impressive over 650 foreign delegates and over 750 local delegates.
The premier business event in the Commonwealth bringing together heads of government, ministers and top business leaders will this year focus on the theme of ‘Partnering for Wealth Creation and Social Development: The Commonwealth, Indian Ocean and SAARC’.
With the largest delegation coming from the Commonwealth member UK, China leads the non-Commonwealth country participation of over 30 nations.
Commonwealth Busi-ness Council Chairman Dr. Mohan Kaul yesterday told the Daily FT that the council was extremely pleased about the delegation turn up at the event.
“There are over 600 delegates from abroad and the rest are filled in by locals,” he said. “As far as the delegates are concerned, we are very pleased that there is a good mix of business people registering for the three-day conference, with the largest delegation coming from the UK.”
“We are going to talk about Asia-Africa partnerships, business partnerships and investment in Sri Lanka and in the Commonwealth among many other topics during the forum,” Dr. Kaul said.
A large number of business partnerships are expected to stem from the event as well.
“We hope to drum up large investments for Sri Lanka, for a lot of MOUs to be signed and for a lot of companies to find partners here. We are working closely with European investments.”
The returns of the forum are likely to come in US$ 2 billion worth of investments in Sri Lanka over the next nine months, Kaul assured. “We are very confident of achieving this.”
Following the opening ceremony today where President Mahinda Rajapaksa will deliver the keynote address, the forum will touch on building new partnerships between the Commonwealth, Indian Ocean and SAARC, PPP infrastructure opportunities in Sri Lanka, developing the rural economy for sustainable shared growth and small and medium business for greater wealth creation and Sri Lanka as the trading hub for the Indian Ocean and SAARC.
Partnership roundtables will also be hosted on manufacturing and value addition, innovation, start-ups and young entrepreneurs, new models for financial infrastructure, business and society and strategies for meeting future energy demand.
A gala dinner hosted by President Rajapaksa under the theme ‘Celebrating Sri Lanka and the Commonwealth’ will be held later in the day at Eagle Lakeside Banquet and Convention Hall, Ratmalana.
During the next two days, sessions will be held on IT, capital markets, textiles and apparel, construction and infrastructure, education and skills and investing in Africa.
On Thursday (14 November), the forum will adjourn after lunch and the heads of delegations and business leaders will travel to Hambantota for a roundtable with heads of government. Chaired by President Rajapaksa, the roundtable will deliberate on the key findings of the forum, Kaul said.
He noted that the delegates will also travel to Battaramulla on Wednesday for the opening of the ‘Reflections of Sri Lanka’ exposition on trade, tourism and investments and then to various parts of the country for investment opportunities as well as for sightseeing.
