Economic forum to discuss value addition in agri exports

Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2015’s second day sessions to be held on August 5 will kick start with the topic of ‘Championing Value Addition in Agri Exports’ – which will discuss ways and means of championing value addition.

The keynote speaker of this session will be Korea Rural Economic Institute Honorary Senior Fellow Myong Keun Eor. Eor earlier has served as the Adviser of the Trade Negotiating Civil Committee of Korea, Coordinator of Korea Pacific Economic Cooperation Council and Special Member of the Agriculture and Rural Development, etc. He has also extensively engaged in training agriculture officers of several countries including Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Cambodia through Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA).

His keynote speech will be followed with a penal discussion with the participation of experts from a cross section of the agri sector. Among the panellist would be the likes of CBL Natural Foods Managing Director Annes Junaid, Oceanpick Private Limited Managing Director Irfan Thassim, University of Peradeniya Faculty of Agriculture Professor of the Department of Crop Science Buddhi Marambe and Hayleys Agriculture Holdings Limited Managing Director Rizvi Zaheed will moderate the session.

Sri Lanka’s export growth is seriously hampered owing to the lack of diversification of our export basket and export markets. The island nation’s export market is purely concentrated in Western economies, while tea and apparel continue to dominate with a 60 percent export income share. This leaves our export sector vulnerable to various external shocks.

It is in this backdrop, the Sri Lanka Economic Summit, the annually held forum, is discussing the title ‘Towards Exports of US $ 50 Billion’.

The two-day event touches eight different topics pertaining to exports in separate sessions and is expected to be taken part by nearly 450 participants. 
Those who wish to register to take part in this annual event may call on 5588877 or 5588852.