His Excellency Ali Faiz High Commissioner of Maldives – Patron of our Council, officials from Maldivian High Commission, Dr. Kingsley Bernard – EDB Chairman, Mr. Buwaneka Perera – CEO of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, past presidents of Sri Lanka – Maldives Business Council, Invitees & Members, At the outset let me thank His Excellency Ali Faiz High Commissioner of Maldives, for having graced this occasion. As the newly appointed President of the Sri Lanka – Maldives Business Council, I take this opportunity to thank the membership and committee for having confidence in me and assure you of my best during my term in office.

Currently, Sri Lanka holds a market of 5-6% in the Maldives import market. Frankly, achieving less than a 6% market share is a point of concern and disappointment. Operating 3 flights per day, along with 2 vessels per week, it seems we have not fully capitalized on these advantages. Hence, our primary vision is to expand our market share in Maldives.

Our Mission

1 – Commencing with the SME Exhibition, the primary focus will be on Sri Lankan SMEs, we will do this with the support of EDB and AitkenSpence. For this we are planning to give free logistic discount Airline tickets and hotel booking and so discount on stalls this will help SMEs to display their new innovative items in Maldives. With this, we are hoping to introduce new suppliers to the Maldives market.

2 – Awareness and opportunities. We should make the bridge for them to get information. So this market information and opportunities we are going to circulate with the help of the Maldives High Commission and Sri Lankan High Commission to Maldives. Please visit our website. We will try to provide the information we know to you.

3 –  We all know in the last few years our members had a lot of issues in both countries. We are well aware of these issues Such as Double taxation and ownership issues, we will find solutions for these issues and we have directed these documents to relevant departments already.

4 –  We should open doors for new business. Today many government institutes have closed their doors for many export goods due to many reasons. It’s high time to open these doors and allow us to do proper business without unwanted barriers.

5 – The visa issue is a big issue for Maldivians who stay in Sri Lanka.  We should help them because they call Sri Lanka their second home and now most of them are leaving Sri Lanka. This is also a very big loss for our country and our friendship.

In 2018, 17,000 Maldivians were living in Sri Lanka. Currently, only 2,000 Maldivians reside in Sri Lanka. Due to this, the estimated loss would be USD 59.2 million per year or more.

My dear members, this is our vision and mission for the coming term. We won’t promise you that we will be able to achieve all this but we will promise you we will be your voice for both countries and we will try to develop our friendship and business relationship much stronger than ever before.

I need all of your support for this.

Thank you, Sukreya.