EDB Chairman meets leading exporters

Chairman and Chief Executive, EDB, Prabhash Subasinghe with two of the exporters.

Chairman and Chief Executive, EDB (Export Development Board), Prabhash Subasinghe met with the country’s leading exporters at the Board premises last week. Twenty-five exporters covering the country’s main export sectors were present. At the outset he thanked them for the contribution made by them to the economy and acknowledged the importance of exports to the country.

He called on exporters to take pride in playing a major role in the development of the country. The Chairman reiterated that the role of EDB is to facilitate exporters in reaching a higher export growth.

The exporters shared their expectations and export trends for 2020. They stressed the need for the policy consistency to increase exports. Subasinghe asked how EDB could assist and intervene on penetrating to any new markets and emphasised the need to develop new products to expand the limited export basket. The exporters were of the view that market access through new and existing FTAs is also a priority to increase exports from Sri Lanka. The need to focus on R & D, innovation for products, brand protection, Geographical Indication protection particularly for agricultural products, land availability for expansion, expediting hub operations were also highlighted during the discussion as key factors to have considerable increase of exports. The need for skilled labour for the cutting and polishing of diamonds and other export industries was stated. It was suggested to have more focussed discussions on strategies to double exports within the next few years.