Financial Times

Businessmen in Sri Lanka need to be more assertive and aggressive to be competitve globally, according to top Sri Lankan CEO of Sigma Pharmaceuticals Limited, an Australian firm among the top five in terms of shareholder returns.

“This lack of assertiveness and aggressiveness may be a cultural thing, but now your competitors are global unlike in earlier days when companies competed within the country, “Elmo de Alwis, CEO and Managing Director, Sigma Pharmaceuticals Limited Melbourne Australia, who was in the country to attend the recently held CIMA Business Leaders’ Summit told The Sunday Times FT.

Saying many Sri Lankans do not like to articulate their competencies and capabilities because many are bashful, but that works as a disadvantage in global markets. “It is important to recognise that your heritage is Sri Lankan, but you need to adapt to the way of the global environments,” he added.

“Not only Sri Lankans, but a lot of migrant populations do not assimilate. You can assimilate and not lose your identity,” he pointed out saying that at Sigma Pharmaceuticals Limited, where he started his career 29 -years ago, has nearly 200 Sri Lankans employed in various areas. “Sri Lankans are viewed as good employees, but the ones who do well are assertive and confident,” he said.

Mr. de Alwis believed it was essential that investors have confidence in the political and economy environments to bring in investments to Sri Lanka. “There are many countries in the region that potential investors can choose to go to and it is all about analysing the economies of scale. Tax concessions, land availability and other investment subsidies are not all what the investors are looking at, but the confidence in the future because business horizons are long term.”

He stressed that Sri Lanka had an educated population and with proper infrastructure and political stability the country could leverage a strong competitive advantage.

“People in Sri Lanka speak English, there is access to competent and qualified staff, but investors need to have confidence in the political stability and the infrastructure,” De Alwis said.

Commenting on the local stock market, he said it was still not very mature. “The performance of the stock market is related to economic conditions than political conditions. There is a greater degree of variability which is not very conduce for foreign stock investments,” he explained.