Financial Times

Japanese business leaders bullish on Sri Lanka

Adrian Zecha, chairman of the renowned Amanresorts chain that has set its sights on a string of hotels in Sri Lanka, says he is upbeat about the country’s future and hence is committing US$23 million to set up three small upscale properties on the island.

He made these comments during a presentation – together with Regaining Sri Lanka Tourism Steering Committee Chairman Hari Selvanathan – on tourism at a private-sector led seminar in Tokyo last week just after a crucial donor meeting where US$ 4.5 billion was pledged by several countries and multilateral agencies.

Sectoral presentations were made on investment opportunities in two industrial sectors pre-selected by Japanese counterparts as top-priority topics for the seminar – export manufacturing (with apparel as a prototype) and tourism. The export-manufacturing speakers were Mahesh Amaleen, Chairman of MAS Holdings, and Shinichi Ochiai of Nakagawa Corporation.

The seminar was co-hosted by the Japan/Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka/Japan Business Cooperation Committees, subsidiaries of the Japan and Ceylon Chambers of Commerce, respectively. Other co-sponsors included the Sri Lankan Embassy, the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), UNIDO, the Sri Lankan Board of Investment (BOI) and UNDP’s Invest-in-Peace Project at the Colombo end.

Some 180 Japanese business leaders attended the meeting. Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, Minoru Murofushi, Chairman of the Japan/Sri Lanka Business Cooperation Committee, Hafiz Pasha, UNDP Assistant Administrator in charge of the Asia/Pacific Regional Bureau, and Chief government negotiator G.L. Pieris were the main speakers at the inaugural sessions.

The PM focused on his economic-recovery strategy and the pivotal role assigned to private direct investment in driving the recovery, Pasha spoke about public/private-sector partnerships for peace while Pieris dealt with the implications of the peace progress for expanding business opportunities.

Japanese Special Envoy Yasushi Akashi, underlining the Japanese government’s commitment to Sri Lanka’s recovery and reconstruction, noted, “We cannot wait for peace. We must make the effort to bring peace.”

The seminar’s core discussions opened with presentations on general business opportunities, with particular reference to Sri Lanka’s Free Trade Agreements. In this session, BOI Chairman Arjunna Mahendran shared the podium with Toru Tokuhisa, Director General of the JBIC Institute; Lord Brennan, Q.C., offering an international lawyer’s perspective of Sri Lanka’s improving framework of commercial laws and financial systems and Katsuhiko Kono, Chairman of FDK Lanka and of the Japanese Commerce & Investment Association in Sri Lanka, giving a successful Japanese investor’s viewpoint.