Swiss support for Sri Lanka

Switzerland declares support for 19A

• First Swiss-Lanka Biz Table concluded
• ‘A top event under the new govt’-Minister Bathiudeen
• ‘Don’t fear global trade’-Dr Harsha
• ‘Great show on 8 January– (HE) Amb Nederkoorn
• ’14 bilateral trade at $269 Mn

 Switzerland, the nation with richest households in the world, threw its support behind the 19 Amendment to the Lankan Constitution on 13 May-while Swiss investors in Colombo chorused in unison for long-term Swiss investments here. “I am very much impressed by the democratic process of Sri Lanka displayed this 08 January-it’s a unique event, and a very good start and passing of 19-Amendment shows that the spirit of reform is very much alive in Sri Lanka. We, the Swiss, would like to support this Lankan reform spirit” said (HE) Swiss Ambassador to Sri Lanka Mr. Heinz Walker-Nederkoorn on 13 May in Colombo.

Swiss Ambassador Nederkoorn was addressing the first ever Swiss-Sri Lanka Business Discussion Roundtable held at EDB on 13 May. The Swiss Embassy in Colombo, Department of Commerce under Minister and the EDB are the joint organizers of this pioneering event where reps from Swiss multinationals operating in Sri Lanka sat face to face to discuss with Rishad Bathiudeen (Minister of Industry and Commerce) and Dr Harsha De Silva (Deputy Minister of Policy Planning, Economic Affairs) at EDB. Holcim, Baur & Co and Roche Products made presentations about their Lankan investments and CSR at the 13 May session. Also joining the session were Bandula Egodage (Chairman-EDB) and RDS Kumararatne (DG-DoC).

Swiss Ambassador Heinz Walker-Nederkoorn, addressing the event, said: “Sri Lanka’s potential is high. I am pleased to share the first Swiss–Sri Lanka Business Roundtable in Colombo today. After the January Presidential polls, Sri Lanka started a comprehensive reforms process. As a respresentative of one of the oldest democracies in the world, I am very much impressed by the democratic process of Sri Lanka displayed this 08 January-it’s a unique event, and a very good start -and passing of 19 Amendment shows that the spirit of reform is very much alive in Sri Lanka. We, the Swiss, would like to support this Lankan reform spirit.”

“This is a timely event as significant economic and political changes are taking place in Sri Lanka under the leadership of HE the President Maithripala Sirisena. In fact, one of the leading investment events to take place since the new government took over in January” said Minister Bathiudeen addressing the session and added: “As far as our relations are concerned, Sri Lanka and Switzerland are enjoying very cordial and a friendly relationship in every aspect, including trade and investment.  Overall, the continuous presence of Swiss investors in Sri Lanka demonstrates a positive outlook.  At the same time, we need to reassess whether you have been able to exploit the full potential of the country. Switzerland is one of the major Foreign Direct Investment partners of Sri Lanka. Swiss companies such as Holcim, Netle, Baur & Co etc, have invested in various fields here such as chemical, pharmaceuticals, cements & construction, it, consumable products, diamonds, tea, logistics. Sri Lanka exports products such as semi-manufactured forms of precious and semi-precious stones, jewellery, boards, and panels to Switzerland at a value of US$ 140 Million in 2014, while Sri Lanka imported US $ 130 Million such as diamonds, pharmaceuticals, electronic integrated circuits, and cements clinkers. But I believe there is great unrealized potential that we need to explore. As you know, we have a large SME Sector and it needs the assistance to link into the Switzerland market. Since 99% of Swiss businesses too are SMEs, I see great synergy potentials for SMEs of both sides. We also encourage our business communities to interact on a regular basis at B2B, trade exhibitions, exchange of delegations through chambers. We consider you, the Swiss investors, as Sri Lanka’s goodwill ambassadors. We have seen good progress in our bilateral trade in the last few years and our total trade in 2014 stood at $269Mn.”

The continued negative trade balance suffered by Sri Lanka in favour of Switzerland in its bilateral trade, reversed for the first time in 2014 to Sri Lanka’s favour with a $10.17Mn surplus.

“The $20 Bn by 2020 export goal is not good enough since it will be only 15% of GDP. Previously we exported more than 30% of GDP” said Dr Harsha De Silva (Deputy Economic Minister) and added: “Therefore I and our Prime Minister, as policy makers, are not going to settle for this-If you look at countries with geographic advantage such as Singapore and Hong Kong, their exports are not 15% of GDP but it surpasses GDP-at 190% to more than 200% of GDP! Sri Lanka’s exports to GDP at 15% will not reduce poverty or make us better-it will not create a Sri Lanka that we want to create and it is not in even the outer margin of Sri Lanka’s new economic policies. We have to double or triple our own export targets. We need to come up with a far better strategy. Switzerland, being a small country, has strong global trade and has so many agreements with EU etc. It does not reject trade with any other country. Some people in Sri Lanka say that we can’t and shouldn’t trade with India. That is stupid! We do not just close our doors with India just because two or three businesspeople say that we should boycott India!  We can’t fear the global market place-we fear if we are not competitive and not good enough. We can’t do this unless we are realistic-being realistic is not a mentality of fear of trading with India or South Asia. This will not help and therefore we need to chuck these people out.  Also we need higher levels of technology; this low level of tech is not enough to expand our exports. To this end, I am very happy of the presentations made by Holcim, Baur & Co as well as Roche Products Ltd at today’s event.”

“We want to do full cycle of production in Sri Lanka and produce 100% of the clinker right here” said Phillipe Richart (CEO-Holcim Lanka), and added: “We are committed to Sri Lanka in the long term.”

In 2013/’14, Swiss households topped world’s private household assets list reporting highest per capita assets, followed by US at the second place.