Interview:Mahesh Amalean Are high standards in apparel specific to any country, and are retailers moving towards them? MAHESH AMALEAN: It is incorrect to say that a specific country does not have high standards. Within any given country you have some manufacturers that meet fairly high standards and others who do not. However, there are countries where a large majority of companies may not…
Interview: Hanif Yusoof How can Sri Lankan importers and exporters become more competitive in international markets? HANIF YUSOOF: Facilitating greater visibility of Sri Lankan firms and brands abroad is very important and is partly done through national initiatives like promoting Ceylon tea, Ceylon cinnamon and tourism. These are all areas in which both the public and the private sector can work…
Interview:Nelson Liu How cost-competitive is Colombo relative to major international ports like Salalah and Singapore? NELSON LIU: Colombo is one of the most cost-competitive ports in the trans-shipment business. Its strategic location means only a minimal deviation from the primary east-west shipping route. This is complemented by a guaranteed service delivery that meets international standards.…
Interview:Merrill Fernando What benefits does the country retain by prohibiting multi-origin blending? MERRILL FERNANDO: Sri Lanka produces approximately 325m kgs of tea, and sells all of it at the world’s highest prices. Sri Lanka is the only major tea-producing nation to have a national brand – Ceylon Tea – as well as the increasingly important attributes of clean and safe teas, based…
Interview:Rohan Pethiyagoda How can Sri Lanka insulate its value chains from volatility in global markets? ROHAN PETHIYAGODA: Because tea is treated like a commodity, it is affected by global trends, which in turn impact our industry. So long as tea remains a commodity, getting a better foothold in global markets will be difficult. We must transform it into a specialty beverage, something coffee…
Interview:Ranjit Fernando What do you see as the most viable solutions to integrated transport in Colombo? RANJIT FERNANDO: The only answer is mass transport. It is not enough to expand the roads alone. These are essential, but the middle class is growing and buying vehicles. September 2015 alone brought around 23,000 new vehicles to the country. This is a result of public transport being so…
Interview:Rajan Brito What more can be done to better market Sri Lanka as a global destination? RAJAN BRITO: Much needs to be done to improve how we brand Sri Lanka. Traditionally, the government thinking was that when the war ended, people would just come. Because it relied on this alone, nothing substantial has been done. By not encouraging the major tour operators to come in, and by not…
Interview:Damitha Kumarasinghe How would Sri Lanka benefit from building a grid interconnection with India? DAMITHA KUMARASINGHE: The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries have all agreed in principal on an integrated SAARC grid. India is already connected to Bangladesh, Bhutan and Nepal. In Sri Lanka’s case, we are, along with the Maldives, the only country still…
Interview:Hans Wijayasuriya Considering its demographic profile, how saturated is Sri Lanka’s telecoms market? HANS WIJAYASURIYA: In terms of nominal penetration, the numbers are north of 100%, but there is a significant incidence of multiple subscriptions, so real penetration sits somewhere between 60% and 65%. In that sense, there is room to grow in terms of new users. Adoption among younger…
Interview:Mack Gill How can Sri Lanka best compete globally as an emerging hub for knowledge services? MACK GILL: There is clearly a unique place for Sri Lanka in terms of IT, and more specifically, engineering and building intellectual property. There is a numbers game in the software business, and then there is a knowledge game. In India it has historically been a numbers game, with a wide…
