TRADE ADJUSTMENT PACKAGE FOR SL COMPANIES
The government will come up with a Cabinet paper for a trade adjustment package to help Sri Lankan companies become more competitive shortly.
Aitken Spence PLC, Commercial Bank, DFCC, Hayleys, HNB, John Keells Holdings, MJF Group( Dilmah tea), Sampath Bank, Sunshine Holdings and 99X Technology were recognized and rewarded as most admired companies of Sri Lanka 2018 at the awards ceremony organized by CIMA Sri Lanka and International Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka last night.
Access Engineering, Bank of Ceylon, Peoples Bank, Seylan Bank and Soft Logic Holdings were honourably mentioned other than the top ten companies at the ceremony.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said this at an event to recognise Sri Lanka’s most admired companies organized by CIMA Sri Lanka and the International Chamber of Commerce in Sri Lanka last evening. Asserting that debt services for the next year would be huge, he said one fourth of it was external debt.
“We will have to increase our revenues in order to raise funds to settle our debt. We have been dealing with non-tradable goods during the past few years. However we need to move on to tradable goods. We have decided to come up with a paper for a trade adjustment package to help local companies to be more competitive internationally,” the Prime Minister said. He said the government was willing to discuss the package with the private sector. The Prime Minister admitted that the country’s economy was not doing so well as a result of global developments. “Things could get even more volatile in the near future, “he added.
He stressed the need for Sri Lanka to join the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) as soon as possible.