Sri Lanka-usa Business Council of Ceylon Chamber of Commerce holds 4th AGM
Sri Lanka-usa Business Council (SLUSABC), which functions under the aegis of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC), held its fourth Annual General Meeting( AGM) recently, re-electing Hayleys Advantis Ltd Director Dr. Asanka Ratnayake as President of the SLUSABC for 2020/2021.
Ambassador of t he United States of America to Sri Lanka and the Maldives Alaina B. Teplitz was the chief guest.
In her address, Teplitz said, “Trade can still grow and one way Sri Lankan companies can maximise trade with the United States is to take better advantage of t he existing trade preferences. For example, did you know that exports under the Generalised System of Preferences or GSP accounted for 5.32 percent of the total exports to the US in 2019? That seems like a very small percentage. A total of 196 million in exports were eligible for cost savings under GSP. This is a marketing advantage that Sri Lankan firms should be broadcasting to prospective buyers as a reason to buy from these companies.
It’s an advantage that, in fact, we do not want to be kept a secret. We want Sri Lankan businesses to know about these opportunities, which is why the embassy facilitated discussions as recently as last week, explaining how GSP exporters can take better advantage of GSP benefits and we’ll continue to discuss that topic, if there is further interest.”
Dr. Ratnayake mentioned, “Today, we are all faced with an unforeseen challenge, that is, the COVID-19 pandemic, which is the biggest disruptor of life and commercial activities in the recent history. It has transformed the world. We can either lead this transformation or we can wait for it to disrupt us. However, the pandemic also gives us reasons to be optimistic. In the recent years, Sri Lanka has been increasingly featured in discussions on the Asian geopolitical environment. Undoubtedly, our strategic location across the Indian Ocean sea lanes has been attracting the interest of major powers such as India, China and more recently, Japan and the US. Whist this has its own merits and demerits, I hope Sri Lanka will be able to withstand to play a new role on Asia’s rapidly changing geopolitical stage and convert it to the country’s own long-term economic benefit.”
Sanji De Silva of Bileeta (Pvt.) Ltd was elected as Vice president and Mohan Mendis of Heritage Teas (Pvt.) Ltd was elected as Treasurer for the period 2020/2021.
CBL Natural Foods (Pvt.) Ltd, Dipped Products PLC, Fanam International (Pvt.) Ltd, Global Rubber Industries (Pvt.) Ltd, HVA Foods PLC, MAC Holdings (Pvt.) Ltd and Regency Teas (Pvt.) Ltd were elected from the membership to serve on the Executive Committee of the council.