Despite attacks, it’s safe to visit France, French envoy assures
View(s):French companies are very interested in coming to Sri Lanka to invest and do business especially with regard to the Megapolis project development. In this context there are a number of companies in France who are specialised in urban development, urban transport, health, sustainable systems such as waste management, water purification and a whole range of such activities keen to invest, said Jean-Marin Schuh, French Ambassador in Sri Lanka, at the 22nd AGM of the Sri Lanka-France Business Council held in Colombo this week. He said France is in fact expected to get involved in a big way in the impending mega development activities that have been envisaged by the Sri Lankan Government.
Trade between the two countries stood at US$1.2 billion last year. While saying that the trade between Sri Lanka and France was favourable to Sri Lanka in 2014, it was favourable towards France in 2015 and this year it would be balanced. Thus, he asserted that the swing could be favourable to Sri Lanka in the future. He said that another area of interest is tourism and there could be an increase of French travellers to Sri Lanka taking advantage of the peaceful atmosphere in Sri Lanka. On the sidelines of the event, in answer to a query, the ambassador said that the annual tourist arrivals in France has been around 83 million and that terrorist activities would have some impact but assured that his Government would do the utmost to ensure the safety of the visitors.
He said that around 100,000 French travel to Sri Lanka annually and assured that it would further increase. Asanka Ratnayake was elected the new President of the Business Council while Dilipan Tyagarajah stepped down as the President. The new president said that Sri Lanka is in transition with policy reforms for better transparency, governance, setting the right policies to attract investment creating an environment of ease of doing business, which is a welcome sign for the international community. (QP)