Sri Lanka is already on the map of Australian tourists
Tourist arrivals from Australia are expected to grow as Sri Lanka’s tourism is on the map of Australia. “When more Australian tourists come here it is good for tour operators and for sustainable tourism and for the Australian businesses to supply food and beverage to the country. Last year we had 111,000 tourists from Australia that came to Sri Lanka,” said the Australian High Commissioner in Sri Lanka David Holly who was the chief guest at the Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability (BCCS) Awards 2019 conducted by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel in Colombo this week.
Referring to the growing trade between Australia and Sri Lanka based on mutual interest, he said it was an important partnership that will promote traditional merchandise as well as new products. The trade last year went beyond US$1.5 billion to $1.6 billion, a 30 per cent increase which was achieved by the service sector. Each year there is more and more interest from Sri Lankan businesses to engage with Australian businesses.
He said leading businesses in Sri Lanka are the vanguard of corporate citizenship and sustainability where the Ceylon Chamber is linking with businesses communities globally that think beyond the corporate bottom line and invest in activities that benefit the environment community and the country as a whole.
He said there are 19 Australian educational service providers in Sri Lanka that provide services with Australian degrees. He said in Australia the companies are leading to greater sustainability and have contributed to global developments. The industries’ sustainability development can also help the community to understand the wonderful job that do.
Chairman of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce Dr. Hans Wijayasuriya said the chamber recently launched an economic acceleration framework which targeted and elevated the level of economic performance for the country for 2025.
“Acceleration is aggressive aiming to uplift 3.5 per cent GDP growth rate this year to a range of 8 per cent during the next five years on the backdrop of region and global competition. The world business economic forum recognised that we should even re-look at the GDP and look more towards wellbeing and sustainability as key measures of growth.”
The three main BCCS awards went to Aitken Spence (the winner) and Commercial Bank Plc and Hatton National Bank Plc being declared the first and second runners up.