Sri Lanka resilient in the face of global financial strains
While the rest of the financial world including China, the US and the West is facing some form of financial distress, Sri Lanka – though not financially sound and having its own problems -, still appears to be resilient and showing progress.
This was stated by Nalin Welgama, Chairman, Ideal Finance Ltd (IFL) on the occasion of exchanging the Joint Venture Agreements between Mahindra Finance, a leading Indian corporate conglomerate and Ideal Finance Ltd and speaking at a media briefing held at the Taj Samudra Hotel, Colombo on Tuesday.
He said that Sri Lanka is resilient and appears on the proper economic track with the Governor of the Central Bank saying that the country’s GDP is at 3 per cent. This growth, according to Mr. Welgama “is not bad”.
He said that if Sri Lanka could adopt the right economic activities and policies it could reach the next level against the current US$ 2,000 per capita income.
Ramesh Iyer, Vice Chairman and Managing Director, Mahindra Finance, said that their strong financial services expertise and innovative products have added value to the lives of millions of customers both in India and in a developed market like the US.
He indicated that the Sri Lankan market holds great potential for growth. Ideal Finance with its knowledge highly experienced team and widespread network is the right partner to help them to create s leading financial services company in Sri Lanka.
Mahindra Finance which focusses on rural and semi-urban markets has entered into a joint venture with Ideal Finance Ltd where Mahindra would be investing Rs. 2 billion by 2021. The joint venture would pave the way for Mahindra to share its 26-year long expertise here in Sri Lanka specially to serve the rural areas.
While Mahindra has been looking at expanding its market overseas, Sri Lanka was chosen first considering its geographical and cultural similarities of both countries and since the country has a vibrant financial services market.
Ideal Finance commenced its operations in 2012 and it too focuses on the rural and semi-urban sectors with an assets base of Rs.4.4 billion and equity base of Rs.1.1 billion.
Aravinda de Silva, Vice President, Ideal Group said that in business they would be involved in good governance and adopt best practices in the industry and these qualities would be augmented by the partnership with Mahindra Finance which altogether enables them to serve their customers, better.
He added: “This partnership will be instrumental in bringing a new dimension to the Sri Lankan NBFI sector which is yearning for consolidation, technology and governance for the past two decades.”
V. Ravi, Executive Director and Chief Financial Officer, Mahindra Finance said that the foundations of the financial services business are trust and transparency.