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UK Trade Envoy Lord Davies concludes 3-day visit to Sri Lanka
The UK Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy for Sri Lanka Lord Davies of Abersoch concluded his three-day visit to the island nation yesterday.
Lord Davies was in Colombo from November 9 to 11.
During his visit, the envoy met with Trade Minister Nalin Fernando, Finance State Minister Shehan Semasinghe and Central Bank Governor Dr. Nandalal Weerasinghe. Discussions focused on Sri Lanka’s trade and investment landscape and plans on reforms and improving ease of doing business to support Sri Lanka’s path toward sustainable economic recovery.
Lord Davies engaged with wide-ranging representation from across the business community. This included economic analysts, the UK transnational education providers, senior business representatives, women business leaders and the members of the committee of the Council for Business with Britain. He also visited the UK companies in the market, including London Stock Exchange Group and Jaguar Land Rover’s showroom.
“I’ve had some insightful conversations and saw first-hand the innovative and hi-tech operations of some of the UK companies in the market. While economic challenges continue, it was encouraging to hear from companies about ambitions to increase their business in-country,” said the envoy in a statement to the media.
He added that he had “impressive” discussions with women business leaders on the efforts to support more female leadership in the workplace and the encouragement of female entrepreneurship.
“I was also struck by the significant impact that the UK educational qualifications delivered in Sri Lanka makes towards the country’s talented workforce,” said Lord Davies.
The envoy affirmed commitment in continuing to extend support to the UK companies as they look to enter or grow their existing business with Sri Lanka.
The UK High Commission in Sri Lanka said it is keen to see the island nation reduce market access barriers and improve ease of doing business, which will further boost the UK-Sri Lanka trade and investment relationship.
Sri Lanka is a valuable trading partner for the UK, it said, with bilateral trade in 2021 worth £1billion, with the trade balance in Sri Lanka’s favour.
“The UK is keen to boost the trade relationship, particularly in the areas of education and financial services sector, while also finding ways to support Sri Lanka’s ambitions on renewable energy and clean transport,” said the High Commission.
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