SL’s investment climate: Jap biz delegation expresses confidence

A delegation of 59 Chairmen, Chief Executive Officers and leading officials of some of the largest, most important and best known Japanese companies visited Sri Lanka on a special invitation of the Prime Minister and participated at the Sri Lanka-Japan Economic Forum organized by the BOI at the Shangri-La Hotel.

The event was of great significant as this is the first time in recent years that a Japanese business delegation consisting of companies of this significance has come to the country to evaluate opportunities for investment and trade.

It was also a reflection of the growing confidence that  the international investor community holds  for Sri Lanka as well as its appreciation of the efforts made by the country to improve its business and investment environment.

The delegation was led by Dr. Akio Mimura Senior Advisor, Chairman of Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corporation, assisted among others by leading business  leaders such as Takanobu Ito, Director and Advisor of Honda Motor Co., Ltd, Masami  Iijima, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Mitsui & Co. Ltd, Masaru Onishi Director, Chairman, Japan Airlines, Yoichi Kobayashi, Vice Chairman, ITOCHU Corporation, Muneo Kurauchi,  Advisor, The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd, Shigeki Dantani, Executive Vice Chairman, Sojitz Corporation, Taku Morimoto, CEO, Mitsui & Co (Asia Pacific) Pte Ltd, Hiroshi Sakuma, Executive Vice President, Mitsubishi Corporation, Kazunori Konishi, Managing Director, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries India Private Ltd, Naoki Izumi, Chairman and Managing Director, Marubeni Corporation, Marubeni India Private Limited, Sei  Kosaka, Director, Komatsu Store., Co. Ltd, Fumio Hoshi, Senior Advisor, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation
The delegation represented a wide cross section of the Japanese economy from sectors including heavy industry, automobile, airline, banking, infrastructure, services, energy and machinery.

Dumindra Ratnayaka, Chairman, of the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka welcomed the Japanese visitors and introduced Sri Lanka’s business and investment environment and strong commitment to attracting investment from leading Japanese companies.

He welcomed them to become the country’s economic partners in development.  Also addressing the audience were Rajendra Theagarajah, the Chairman of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, Dr. Akio Mimura, Chairman of the Japan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Daya Weththasinghe, President of  the Sri Lanka-Japan Business Co-operation Committee.

Japanese investments have had a significant presence in the country for several decades and are an integral part of national economy of Sri Lanka.

Kenichi Suganuma, Ambassador for Japan in Sri Lanka and his counterpart Prof. Ganganath Dissanayake, Ambassador for Sri Lanka in Japan also participated at the forum.

The keynote address was delivered by Malik Samarawickrama, Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade who was overall responsible for the organizing and hosting of Sri Lanka Japan Economic Forum.

At the forum the BOI made a strong case to the Japanese side for investing Sri Lanka and a presentation was made by Champika Malalgoda, Executive Director – Research and Policy Advocacy.
The final event was a panel discussion that provided an insight into doing business in Sri Lanka where the participants were Dr. Indrajith Coomaraswamy, the Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, Duminda Ariyasinghe, Director General of BOI, Mangala Yapa, Board Director of BOI, Dr. Toru Takehara, Chairman, Colombo Dockyard. The moderator was Rajendra Theagarajah, Chairman of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce.