Indian CEO Forum meets Tata Sons Chairman in Colombo

From left: Umesh Gautam, Asish Chandra, Gaurav Mehta, T.S. Prakash, Tata Sons Chairman Natarjan Chandrasekaran, Kishore Reddy, Monisha Abraham, Dipak Das, Sanjay Baid, Samrat Datta

The board of the Indian CEO Forum-Sri Lanka (ICF) on Monday met the Tata Sons Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran who is on a visit to Sri Lanka.

ICF had an interactive meeting with Chandrasekaran and highlighted the positive environment opportunities for investments in Sri Lanka.

The CEO team led by the forum’s President, T.S. Prakash, stated that the member companies represent diverse industries and thanked the TATA group for already having investments in many fields in Sri Lanka and also mentioned that Sri Lanka provides lots of opportunities for new investments. 

He said the objective of ICF is to promote economic growth in Sri Lanka through Indian investment, safeguard and strengthen existing economic cooperation, foster new economic ties between India and Sri Lanka, and provide an open forum for business leaders of Indian origin employed with Indian multinationals and Sri Lankan business organisations in Sri Lanka.

ICF quoted Chandrasekaran as saying: “We need to identify the sectors which would help Sri Lanka, one of them is of course tourism which has a huge potential. We need to shortlist three other sectors in which India could successfully invest.”

Chandrasekaran also mentioned that Sri Lanka is a beautiful country and is looking into understanding the opportunities for investments.

ICF Vice President Kishore Reddy briefed Chandrasekaran on the “Shine Lanka” initiative of the forum to promote trade and investments. Through this program ICF can assist and guide investments into Sri Lanka in various fields and initially will be concentrating on Tourism, IT, Education, Industries and Infrastructure.

The board members of ICF had a very interactive meeting with Chandrasekaran on the stability on social and economic front with the efforts of the Government post the crisis the country had gone through and also discussed the current economic situation, various fields of investments that can assist Sri Lanka to further grow into a sustainable economy.

The ICF team that called on Chandrasekaran included President T.S. Prakash (Umesh Modi Group), Vice President Kishore Reddy, (Platinum Investments), Past President – Umesh Gautam, (Lanka Ashok Leyland PLC), Dipak Das, (Lanka IOC), Ashish Chandra, (Bharti Airtel), Sanjay Baid (Niru Group), Gaurav Mehta (Powertech), Monisha Abraham (CTC), Samrat Datta ( Taj Hotels).

The Indian CEO Forum – Sri Lanka (ICF), is a registered body with membership constituted by Indian investment in Sri Lanka, Indian heads of Multinational companies (MNCs), and Sri Lankan companies. It currently has over 60 members contributing in providing gainful employment to thousands, providing best-in-class management, technical skills, and contributing substantiality to Sri Lanka’s foreign exchange earnings. The members have made significant input and support to the Sri Lankan economy by bringing substantial investments into the country, export earnings, employment generation, and contribution of treasury through direct and indirect taxes, and building the brand of Sri Lanka to the outside world and making a significant contribution to the local economy.