The induction ceremony of the President of SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry was held in Colombo last week.
Rohan Edirisinghe who was inducted as the President, said, “I am confident that I could give the necessary leadership to the SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the next two years. I will see that the SAARC Chamber is the strongest in the world by 2030. I am confident that I could build a team to use the natural resources of the region for its development.
“We could use the youth for development that is over 45% and make this the fastest growing economy in the world. We are expecting to use the SAARC free port facility among the SAARC countries.
“We can achieve a 30–35% value addition in our countries and the products could be exported to Europe. There are barrier in exporting to Europe but with this value addition we can export as SAARC products and sell our products to those markets,” he said.
Tourism in the SAARC region is not active enough and this must be improved among SAARC countries. The region could have a vibrant tourism industry and all measures must be taken to develop the industry within the region and beyond, Edirisinghe said.
The chief guest, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said, “Inter-trade in the SAARC region could be improved further and we need to take measures to integrate in doing business.
“We must strengthen our people to people contact among SAARC counties. Since Mohenjo-Daro we were a centre for commerce and industry. Unfortunately we have slipped behind. The SAARC chamber must ensure that our businesses are in line with developments taking place in the world and become a part of the Asia Pacific trade.
“To develop, we should trade more. We have a lot of scope in trading with the world but, we have a lot more in trading among ourselves. Our biggest market has two billion people. And development has to fall into place. South East Asia and South Asia are much ahead of us. Now they are forming their own trade partnerships.
“This is the beginning of a trade agreement. It will become the regional comprehensive partnership. India, China, South Asia, South East Asia, Australia and the pacific will be included. This will become the first largest trading arrangement.
“We are looking at a market of five billion. The middle class is one billion. We could get a small part of this. Overall, we must raise the level of competitiveness just as the others in South Asia.
“We have gone back to establishing development finance bank. We are in discussion with DFCC, NDB, BOC and People’s Bank. This we find essential if the Sri Lankan business are to develop and compete with others. With regard to the ease of doing business we found many issues that could have been dealt with by the bureaucracy and this we must revise annually or at least every two years to rectify any issues,” he said.
Immediate Past President of SAARC Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Suraj Waidya said, “The first meeting in Islamabad to map out the a way forward was a success. However, the first delegation to Afghanistan was met by business leaders but the political ones were not there.
“This was a disappointment as we had agreed that as a regional group we could all grow together. We all have one thing in common and that is that all our people want to do better in life.”
“It is the fear of believing that terrorist will come. But terrorists don’t need visas, they don’t cross boarders at usual places. Good business people do. They like to move around. Therefore, why don’t we allow the people of South Asia to move freely in South Asia? We need to address this,” he said.