President, UNCTAD chief and Commonwealth Secretariat Sec-General at global export forum in Colombo next month
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Maithripala Sirisena
The 16th edition of the World Export Development Forum (WEDF) to be held in Colombo on October 12-13 has an impressive set of speakers led by Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena. Jointly organised and co-hosted by the Geneva-based International Trade Centre (ITC) Sri Lanka’s Ministry of Development Strategies and International Trade of Sri Lanka, through the Export Development Board (EDB), it will be Sri Lanka’s largest international trade gathering in recent times. The President will be in the company of a top line-up of international and local personalities like Mukisha Kituyi, Secretary-General, UNCTAD; Ms. Patricia Scotland
Arancha González
Secretary-General – The Commonwealth Secretariat; Dr. Shamshad Akhtar, Executive Secretary, UNESCAP; Malik Samarawickrama, Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade; Khurram Dastgir Khan, Pakistan’s Commerce Minister, Sujeewa Senasinghe, State Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade; Ms. Arancha González, Executive Director – ITC and Ms. Zoritsa Urosevic, Representative in Geneva for the UN World Tourism Organisation. According to an announcement on its website, WEDF is a “unique global conference and business-to-business (B2B) matchmaking platform dedicated to supporting trade-led development”.
As the flagship event of the ITC, WEDF brings together over 600 business leaders, policymakers, heads of trade and investment support institutions and international trade development officials to address international competitiveness for developing countries. Among the other speakers from Sri Lanka are: Ms. Indira Malwatte, Chairperson – EDB; Upul Jayasuriya, Chairman – Board of Investments of Sri Lanka; Mahesh Amalean, Chairman – MAS Holdings; Dr. Saman Kelegama, Executive Director – Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka; Hiran Cooray, Chairman – Jetwing; Ruwindhu Peiris,
Shamshad Akhtar
Chairman – SLASSCOM and Managing Director – Stax; Mano Sekaram, CEO and Founder – 99X Technology Ltd and Dulith Herath, CEO and Founder Kapruka.com. International speakers include Dr. D.J. Pandian, Vice President and Chief Investment Officer, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB); Stefano Arganese, CEO, Central Eastern Southern Europe and Americas, Middle East, Africa at DHL Freight; Prof. Wolfgang Arlt, China Outbound Tourism Research Institute; Ms. Sally Buberman, Co-founder, Wormhole IT; Dr. Naushad Forbes, President – Confederation of Indian Industry; Ms. Donia Hammami, Head of Customs and Trade Facilitation Policy – International Chamber of Commerce; Gao Hongbing, Vice President
Patricia Scotland
and Director, Alibaba Group & AliResearch; Ms. Marion Jansen, Chief Economist – ITC; Sabur Khan, Chairman – Daffodil Group, Dhaka; Ms. Leila Khan, Chairwoman – Prime Minister’s Youth Programme, Pakistan; Pascal Khoo, Author based in Oslo; Alan Morell, Director – ISO Regional Engagement Asia; Tony Nash, Chief Economist and Managing Partner – Complete Intelligence; Brian Pallas, Chairman, CEO and Founder – Opportunity Network; Gian Luca Petrelli, Founder and Executive Chairman – BeMyEye; Jagdish Kumar Singla,
Director Finance – Nestlé Lanka and Dr. Susan Stone, Chief of Trade, Investment and Innovation Division, UNESCAP. The ITC, a UN organisation, helps small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) grow and compete internationally, building on business opportunities. Discussing the venue, the conference announcement says that Sri Lanka, a hub for South Asia, is a high-performing economy underpinned by a skilled, educated workforce. Over 80 per cent of Sri Lankan businesses are SMEs. They feature prominently in Sri Lanka’s economic blueprint, which sets out ambitious goals to create one million new jobs through wider participation in the global economy.