Chairman's speech 2024 - 2025

ADDRESSING THE 27^TH ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE EXPORTERS' ASSOCIATION OF SRI LANKA

Ladies and gentlemen

It is with great humility and pride that I take on the role as Chairman of the Export Association of Sri Lanka, the export arm of the Chamber of Commerce. I'd like to thank the membership for the vote of confidence and pledge to do justice to the position in the coming year. It's refreshing to see so many of the Associations membership here this evening, thank you for taking to time to come and attend the AGM today. Thank you also to our Guest Speaker Mr Bingumal Thewarathanthri for so kindly accepting our invitation to be with us today. We look forward to hearing from you in a few minutes. To our distinguished guests, our sincere thanks for being here in spite of your busy schedules.

A sincere thank you also to our now Immediate Past Chairman Ranil for his leadership and guidance of the EASL during his tenure and for guiding the association through some difficult and challenging times. Thank you Ranil for your efforts and I hope that even though you've vacated the "Chair" you will continue to support the EASL in the coming year as well.

Rozanne, Nalaka thank you for taking on the Vice Chairman roles at the EASL and I look forward to working closely with you both in furthering the agenda of the Association.

The EASL holds a unique place in Sri Lanka's business landscape. A bit of history for those who may not be aware, the EASL was set up in 1997 with the merger of the Federation of Exporters Associations which was the multi sector export association of the EDB, and the Export Section of the Chamber of Commerce. Membership of the EASL is open to both individual member companies of the Chamber, as also to Exporters Associations, and their members. As such we are an organization that covers a significant part of Sri Lanka's merchandise and services exports. Whilst we traditionally think of the merchandise export sector, it's important that we also consider the needs of the services sector in order to serve the interests of all our members.

We are all innately aware of the role that the export sector has to play in rebuilding Sri Lanka’s economy and the EASL will continue to work for its members in this area. Under Ranil's leadership (Ranil Goonetilleke that is) the EASL has lobbied for a number of exporter centric issues including areas such as mandatory conversions, the proposed removal of SVAT and the creation of a competitive landscape for exporters to grow their businesses. In the post covid era the challenges for exporters have been many and if we are to a) have existing export businesses grow, and b) attract new investments into exports then it is vital that we have an enabling environment. Unfortunately, as we all know only too well, that is not the case today. This will continue to be the thrust of our lobby in the coming months as well.

The strength of the EASL is in its wide membership, and I would like to appeal to each and every member of the EASL to please reach out to the Secretariat and reconnect with the Association so that we can ensure your voice is heard and that we can ensure that we are looking after each the interests of your particular sector. We would gladly invite any of our members to our committee meetings if you’d like to contribute to the affairs of the Association. I am very conscious that an association like the EASL needs to add value to its membership and I am committed to ensuring that we serve the many sectors that we cover with equal emphasis irrespective of the size of the sector in our export landscape, so please do reach out if there is any thing that you as a member of the EASL feel we should be working on.

The challenges of the export sector remain the same over the last few years, essentially captured in the need for a competitive environment where exporters can operate their businesses unhindered by unnecessary and costly bureaucracy, enabling Sri Lankan exporters to offer products and services that are competitive in the global landscape. Today we compete with numerous countries, many of whom work in much more conducive environments and it is it vital that we work to pushing boundaries in this area to provide our exporters the ability to grow their respective exports. These include things like electricity tariffs, preferential market access, mandatory conversion requirements and of course the risks to the sector from the proposed removal of SVAT. No doubt this list will continue to grow as new challenges appear and the committee of the EASL is committed to addressing these as they arise.

The EASL is itself a coming together of associations and in this vein, we have worked very closely with other chambers on a number of issues. We remain committed to this route as a number of the issues our members face are also faced by members of the other chambers and the voice of the "Joint Chambers" has proven to be one that cannot be ignored.

The EASL is the export arm of the Chamber, and we are very appreciative of the support that the Chamber provides us with in our day to day activities. I’d like to formally place on record our thanks to Duminda as Chairman and to Buwaneka as CEO / Secretary General and to Alikie for their continued support of the EASL. Thank you to Deandra for her support and a special thanks to Ushi for helping us navigate the numerous challenges in the build up to the AGM. I trust we can look forward to your continued support in the coming months as well as we streamline the Association and it's offer to the membership.

Thank you and wishing you a pleasant evening ahead.