Sri Lanka to be made the printing hub of Asia
With printing being the largest industry in the world that is very rapidly booming, the country is heading towards making Sri Lanka the printing hub of Asia, said Johnny Fernando, President of the Sri Lanka Association of Printers. He made these comments to the Business Times on the sidelines of the inauguration of the ‘Collate’ (printing) Exhibition at the Cinnamon Lakeside in Colombo last Thursday.
He said in today’s context customers are quality focused and expect the best quality within a short period of time.
With Sri Lanka being a small market compared to others in the world, most of the printing machinery importers and distributors in the country are focused on second hand machinery rather than going for brand new ones due to the cost factor. Also it is the offset printing that is topping the market than digital printing due to various reasons.
The 3-day exhibition which began last Friday (21) ends today. The theme of the exhibition is ‘Energizing the Sri Lankan Print World’. More than 75 companies are taking part in the exhibition including machinery importers, suppliers, printers and print finishers.
Speaking at the inauguration of the exhibition, Minister of Technology and Research, Patali Champika Ranawaka said, “Printing and packaging are one of the greatest fields of growing industry. Today printing has gone to a next level platform form which is the 3D Printing Technology.”
Communication, publication and packaging are three salient segments and provide an accurate measure of the strength in consumer spending power and progression and provides a benchmark to developing economies such as Sri Lanka, he added.
He also noted that, Collate 2014 is a forum which brings together both printer and supplier through multi events designed to project and reward print excellence while also creating a platform for showcasing technological advancement within the industry. ‘Collate’ is the largest printing exhibition in the country that takes place once in every two years. The exhibition began with a conference conducted by a panel of local and international experts in the field of printing and packaging on Thursday (20) after the inauguration at the Cinnamon Lakeside. Also an awards night was held at the Waters’ Edge in Colombo yesterday.