CCC’s South African trip opens new trade options

The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) Trade Fair Unit concluded its programme of activities for 2006 with yet another success story.

A CCC statement said the Unit drew up a plan of action for 2006 and explored some untapped and emerging markets such as Myanmar, Vietnam and the final mission was to South Africa. All these missions focused not only on promotion of trade, investments and joint ventures, but they also served as fact finding missions.

The nine member delegation led by Samantha Ranatunga, Chief Operating Officer, CIC Group and assisted by Puvi Domingopillai, Senior Assistant Secretary General, CCC, visited Durban and Johannesburg recently. They were accompanied by seven leading organisations comprising K B Kotagama, Managing Director, CIC Fertilizers (Pvt) Ltd., Ruwan Senanayake, General Manager, International Trade Development, Freight Links International (Pte) Ltd., Nisal Weerasekera, Manager, Imperial Teas (Pvt) Ltd., Karthik Ramachandran, Commercial Manager, Jayes Trading Company, W K H Wegapitiya, Chairman, Laugfs Holdings Ltd., N M Manjula Narayana, Managing Director, N M K Group of Companies and R D D Abethilake, General Manager (Commerce), Samson Rubber Industries (Pvt) Ltd.

The delegation also visited Dubai and met the business community.

The mission members expressed interest in establishing contacts with importers of Tea, Spices, Tropical fruits, Herbal products, Rubber products, Bakery products, food products and Shipping & Freight Forwarding. The programme was supported by the Sri Lankan missions in South Africa and Dubai. In total in Durban, Johannesburg and Dubai the delegation met with approximately 70 organisations.