Norway shifts to business brokering from peace brokering in Sri Lanka
Ambassador Thorbjorn Gaustadsaether
In a shift from the role as a peace broker in Sri Lanka, Norway, the gateway to Scandinavia and the third highest per capita market in the world, is gearing up to promote business cooperation between the two countries focusing on the ICT industry, marineand maritime services, solar energy and tourism, etc.The Norwegian Embassy in Sri Lanka will be serving as a facilitator to enhance investment and trade and assist local businessmen and exporters for partnerships with Norwegian counterparts, newly appointed Ambassador Thorbjorn Gaustadsaether told the Business Times in an interview in Colombo last week.
Mr. Gaustadsaether noted that the embassy extends assistance to establish contacts between Norwegian and Sri Lankan entrepreneurs to start joint ventures or to do business via their links. It will help to explore many niche markets for Sri Lankan products and new opportunities available in Norway, he added. The embassy will support the Sri Lanka Investment Forum that is proposed to take place in March 2016 organized by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) by identifying key resource persons who will also explore investment and trade between the two countries, he revealed adding that the embassy will arrange sector specific business forums as a part of their facilitating process.
Norway has extended GSP + to Sri Lanka for a number of products and duty concessions up to 50 per cent and 100 per cent on certain products. He called Sri Lankan businessmen to step forward and grab promising opportunities available with it.Praising the island nation’s efforts to develop the fisheries industry and the proposal to set up canned fish factories, Mr. Gaustadsaether noted that the Norwegian industry could assist Sri Lanka towards this end in a big way. He pointed out that his country could provide technical assistance in the areas to improve fish quality, food safety and reduce post-harvest losses and to support Sri Lanka’s research on fish stock assessment and marine ecosystem.
The Norwegian Government-supported Business Match-Making programme of Sri Lanka for the last 20 years came to an end in December 2014. With the results achieved and experiences gained Norway’s partners and the CCC entered into a Memorandum of Understanding to continue the same cooperation on commercial basis. The present peaceful environment appears to be very positive as a number of Norwegian companies are keen to visit the island and the focus is on energy and IT sector, he revealed. Mr. Gaustadsaether said that he is having discussions with the CCC to further enhance business partnerships between the two countries. He also welcomed the new government’s initiative to introduce economic diplomacy mooted by Deputy Foreign Minister Dr. Harsha de Silva. The Norwegian embassy in Colombo is ready to extend its support to make this concept reality, he added.
The embassy has strengthened its staff to serve the increasing needs of the Norwegian business sectors and also planned to focus on strategically important and mutually beneficial industrial sectors for both countries, he revealed. Referring to tourism promotion, the Norwegian Ambassador said that Sri Lanka should implement a multi-pronged marketing strategy to promote the country as a beach, wildlife, culture, and heritage destination to attract tourist from Norway and other Scandinavian countries. He disclosed that the Norwegian tourists used to travel in Thailand and Sri Lanka has the potential to tap this segment.
The country should launch a tourism promotion campaign now one year ahead, if it wants to attract Norway and other Scandinavian tourists to the island nation in 2017, he suggested. Norwegian support for economic development and peace building has been the focus areas in recent years. Support to economic development is aimed to improve the living conditions in the least developed parts of the country. The embassy will focus on supporting SMEs for capacity improvement and access to credit.
Norway has also prioritized support to women’s situation through livelihood programmes, he said adding that it will extend support towards increasing the number of women participation in the governance structure at parliamentary, local government and provincial council levels.