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| Sunday, 4 April 2004 |
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Business |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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CCC celebrates 165th anniversary by ELMO LEONARD The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) last week, celebrated 165 years in existence, making it one of the oldest trade chambers in the world, preceding even the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry. Today, CCC is the most important trade chamber in Sri Lanka. It has grown into a confederation of chambers of commerce and industry. It has formed alliances with 9 regional chambers, 22 trade chambers, product and service associations, 18 bilateral business councils and the Employers' Federation of Ceylon, business councils and employer associations. While the tangible benefits, this chamber has given to the country cannot be measured in monetary figures, the economic spillover of its services cannot be overestimated. CCC was founded on March 1839, when Ceylon was under the British rule for 43 years with a total population of 1.4 million. Records kept at the CCC show that until 1839, cinnamon was the main article of export. Other exports included, elephants, arrack, arecanuts, tobacco, coconuts and coconut oil, cardamoms, beeswax, pearls, precious stones and coral. Imports included, rice, coarse cotton cloth and calicoes, coarse muslin, printed cloths, chinaware, articles made of tin and copper, wine and beer and salt provisions ordered by the then government. There were few firms doing business in Galle and Colombo before 1839. In point, was George Steuart and Co, stared in 1835 by James Steuart. The establishment of the coffee industry made a big difference to the trade of the colony. In 1823, George Bird, a former cavalry officer, started the first coffee plantation. Governor Stewart Mackenzie was keenly interested in promoting agriculture and trade and it was on his initiative, that CCC was established. Cinnamon at the time yielded to coffee as the island's leading industry and it was in 1839 that the first tea seeds were planted to start an industry which was destined to take the place of coffee, later on in the century. The island's revenue was pounds sterling 372,013 and expenditure pounds sterling 382,592. And the total tonnage of shipping at ports amounted to 206,000 tons. Among the major achievements of CCC were: Its inaugural meeting, first chairman, Joseph Reed, chosen; 1856 - CCC invited to nominate a member of the mercantile community to advise on recommendations to the proposed railway from Colombo to Kandy; 1867 - first Colombo-Kandy rail journey inaugurate. 1869 - CCC recommended that Colombo be developed into a major port (from the earlier Galle); 1873 - CCC invited to assist the government in choosing a representative of mercantile interests for the Legislative Council; 1876 - CCC urged government to extend a railway lines from Nawalapitiya to Uva and from Kandy to Matale; 1894 - First Colombo Tea Auctions conducted under CCC auspices; 1895 - CCC incorporated under the Chamber of Commerce Ordinance of 1895; 1898 - CCC moved into its new building at Lower Chatham Street; 1898 - Tea auctions commenced in the chamber building; 1910 - Rubber auctions commenced in the new building; 1921 - With the reconstitution of the Legislative Council, the chamber membership was made an electorate for the purpose of returning a mercantile representative; 1925 - CCC recommended through its representative in the Legislative Council that an Advisory Board be appointed on hydro-electric schemes; 1939 - Bank of Ceylon opened its first office on the ground floor of the chamber building; 1955 - CCC promoted the formation of the Ceylon Association of Manufacturers; 1959 - Election of the first Sri Lankan Chairman, Mr S.T.L. de Soysa; 1961 - CCC launched a 'grow more food campaign'; 1966 - CCC set up a Shippers' Council; 1967 - CCC organised private sector engineering and construction companies to undertake restoration of irrigation work and jungle clearance; 1974 - CCC formulated the National Export Awards scheme; 1977 - the CCC urged the formulation of a powerful National Export Board to serve the focal point of the export effort; 1982 - CCC membership adopted a code of ethics for business; 1984 - CCC commenced representation for the liberalisation of insurance; 1987 - CCC commenced the building of its present Chamber building. Today, CCC comprises over 500 members covering the entire spectrum of the business community ranging from sole proprietors to multinationals. In the international business scene, in addition to being a primary member of the Confederation of Asia-Pacific Chambers and the International Chamber of Commerce, Sri Lanka, it enjoys links with over 34 local and overseas chambers and trade associations through memoranda of understanding, thus making the network advantageous to the members for promotion of trade/investment. |
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