SL’s corporate sector gets huge ‘thumbs up” from Japan

Sri Lanka’s corporate sector got a huge ‘thumbs up’ from Japanese Ambassador Kenichi Suganuma on Tuesday. Speaking at the chief guest of the annual Best Corporate Citizen Sustainability Award of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce held at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel, the ambassador said: “I have been in Sri Lanka for two and a half years and has been impressed that many Sri Lankan companies are aware of their corporate social responsibility and how they care about it”.
He said corporate sustainability in Sri Lanka has been there for 14 years long, before the United Nations even adopted such a sustainability goal. 
Referring to corporate longevity in Japan, he said over 30,000 companies in Japan have thrived for more than 100 years due to diligence shown towards social responsibility.  It was also because of the interaction the companies had with society at large.
He said the Japanese relationship with Sri Lanka has been growing steadily during the last two and a half years following the formation of the new government in Sri Lanka. “We have been trying to strengthen the relationship politically with the new government and also with the business side following the growing interest in Sri Lanka.”
He said at a seminar held in Japan organized by JETRO there was a large number of Japanese inquiring about investment possibilities in Sri Lanka. “There is a growing interest in Japan about Sri Lanka now,” he noted. (Jayampathy)