Your Excellency, Mahinda Rajapakse, President of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, Hon’ble Ministers of Sri Lanka and Pakistan, Your Excellency, General Srilal Weerasooriya, High Commissioner of  the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, members of the Sri Lankan business delegation, members of the Pakistan Sri Lanka Business Forum, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.

On behalf of the President, Office-Bearers, and members of Pakistan Sri Lanka Business Forum, it is my proud privilege to welcome Your Excellency to Karachi. This visit is a manifestation of your government’s commitment to strengthening the already vibrant relationship between the business communities of Sri Lanka and Pakistan. This evening’s function graced by Your Excellency is also a momentous occasion for those of us who dwell in Karachi the center for industrial and trade activities contributing 67% of the nation’s revenue. We also appreciate the presence of the distinguished representatives of the industrial and business community of Sri Lanka to our metropolitan city. This evening, we add another chapter to the bonding, binding, and building of a mutually beneficial relationship between the industrial and business community of both countries.

Your Excellency, a couple of weeks ago, you had very graciously granted an audience to the first-ever business delegation organized by the Pakistan Sri Lanka Business Forum. We are now sanguine that there would be more such delegations traveling to each other’s country so that business linkages, joint ventures, two-way trade, and friendly visits would be intensified, productive, and profitable.

Your Excellency, the Forum also presents its compliments to you for presenting the Mahinda Chinthana. We are of the opinion that the successful implementation of your vision would be a tremendous boon for the citizens your esteemed country and would surely build a new Sri Lanka thru rapid socio-economic development. We applaud schemes such as the 300 factories program, the skill development of 30,000 young people, incentives for agriculture, fisheries, and information technology, and capacity building of the textile sector. We feel that your vision would soon be emulated by governments in many countries. The latest news that the Sri Lankan economy grew by 6.3% in the fourth quarter is remarkable considering adverse factors such as the Tsunami, the increased oil prices, the intense competition in textiles, and other external and internal factors.

Your Excellency, Sri Lanka and Pakistan have a bilateral trade regime that is not reflecting the desirable position. The figure of US$ 200 million is not the vision of the Pakistani and Sri Lankan businesspersons. Pakistan’s exports to Sri Lanka are less than 2% of her total exports while only 0.21 of her total imports are from Colombo. It is imperative that steps must be initiated to enhance these figures, especially now that the Free Trade Agreement is an exciting reality.  

Your Excellency, there is an immediate need to focus on the items that could be mutually beneficial for both the countries. We appreciate the announcement made by the Hon’ble Jeyaraj Fernandopulle, the Commerce and Consumer Affairs Minister, during his meeting in Karachi with the Forum members on January 23, 2006 that the Ceylon Tea Center would be established in Karachi. We believe that this would be an excellent tool for boosting the sales of Sri Lankan tea in Pakistan. We also see added demand for spices, copra, and rubber products. We also are of the opinion that there would be more demand for Pakistani rice, textile fabrics, pharmaceuticals, vegetables and fruits. At the same time, we are interested in the marketing of confectionary, chocolate, and biscuits. We advocate their inclusion for duty free status under the FTA because the biscuit, chocolate, and confectionary sectors of both the countries could benefit from linkages rather than directly competing in the international market. We also emphasize more cooperation in the field of information technology, engineering industries, food processing, and textiles.

Your Excellency, the Pakistani rice exporters are desirous of increasing their trade with Sri Lanka. They suggest that the duty free quota be increased to 10,000 metric tonnes at par with the facility accorded to tea.

Your Excellency, at present there are three flights per week by Sri Lankan Airlines and two flights per week by Pakistan International. The former makes a stopover in Mumbai and thus traveling time is affected. We think that there is ample air traffic to justify increasing the frequency of flights between the two countries. We also propose direct flights instead of a stopover in Mumbai. We also propose that Sri Lankan Airlines should cater to the Lahore sector too. We believe that these measures would also accelerate tourism especially to religious and historical places. Sri Lankan Airlines has 89 flights per week to India while private Indian carriers add another 25 flights.

Your Excellency, there is a growing demand for production, quality assurance, and skills development managers by many textile establishments in Pakistan. Pakistan’s textile and clothing industry needs the Muttiah Muralitharans and the Sanath Jayasurias in Sri Lankan apparel industries to enhance skills and productivity of the human resource in Pakistan’s garment industries. Our Shahid Afridis and Shoaib Akhters are available in leather, in rice milling, in Islamic banking, and in textile processing, etc to come and impart knowledge and experience to their counterparts in Sri Lanka. The common approach opportunities are aplenty.

Your Excellency, taking advantage of this occasion, we also request the Pakistany government to reconsider its decision of excluding Sri Lanka from the list of Category ‘A’ countries whose citizens would be eligible for visas on arrival in Pakistan. Sri Lanka is one country that has always welcomed Pakistanys warmly and provided on-arrival visas. We request Islamabad that this facility should be accorded to our Sri Lankan brothers and sisters.

Your Excellency, during your election campaign you described to your citizens what your honorable first name stood for. I take this opportunity to enlighten this distinguished audience what MAHINDA denotes:
M – Mastermind, A – Active, H - Honest, I - Intelligent, D – Dynamic, A- Ambitious.

Your Excellency, it is our hope and prayer that the SAARC countries enjoy substantial economic prosperity, closer friendship, and regional peace and security, so that the citizens of Sri Lanka and Pakistan as well as of the other SAARC countries should be able to live in an environment that reflects trust, comfort, and solidarity.