The Sri Lanka Japan Business Cooperation Committee (SLJBCC) hopes to encourage Japanese investors to set up industries in Sri Lanka to capture the huge Indian market taking advantage of the Indo-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement.
This comment was made by Sarath De Costa, SLJBCC Vice-President, at the press briefing in Colombo last week to announce the 15th Joint meeting of the Sri Lanka Japan and Japan Sri Lanka Business Cooperation Committee here in Sri Lanka from 18 – 20 November.
Adding to this suggestion, Merrik Gunaratne, another Vice President, said the Indian market is US$ 41 billion and if a small percentage of this market could be captured in Sri Lankan terms it would be huge. He said that the investors who come to Sri Lanka are ably assisted by the Board of Investment.
Japanese Foreign Direct Investments at the end of 2008 stood at US$ 330 million providing more than 12,000 jobs. In addition there are a number of small scale enterprises with Japanese investment operating under normal laws of Sri Lanka and 60 enterprises with Japanese investment operating in Sri Lanka under concessions.
Kaosu Shemazaki, Deputy Head of Mission at the Japanese Embassy in Sri Lanka, tracing the history of Japanese investment in Sri Lanka said that it began in 1970 and the first milestone was in 1972 with the establishment of a joint venture between Noritake of Japan and the Ceylon Ceramics Corporation. Since then he said that Japanese investment has contributed immensely to the country’s industrial development, particularly in electronics, ceramics, engineering and metal –based sectors.
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