A high-powered business delegation representing nearly 15 top companies in Belgium arrived in Sri Lanka on the 29th of November until the 2nd of December 2016. The trade mission hopes to create business opportunities and build partnerships between the participating companies and the local business community.
The mission is led by Flanders Region of Belgium (Flanders Investment and Trade) in close cooperation with the Brussels (Brussels Invest and Export) and the Walloon Region (Awex) of Belgium; the Embassy of Belgium in New Delhi and the Honorary Consulate of Belgium in Colombo. Flanders is one of the three regions of Belgium dominated by Flemish-speaking people while Wallonia is dominated by French-speaking people and Brussels has a multilingual population.
Companies in the delegation represent a wide range of sectors including Engineering, Geo Technology, Construction, Electronics, Food and Agriculture, Power and Energy, Information Technology and so much more.
The trade mission will culminate with a special seminar to be held on the 2nd of December at the Colombo Hilton with the participation of several business and industry stakeholders as well as government officials. The seminar is organized by the European Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka (ECCSL) in collaboration with Flanders Investment and Trade (FIT). Over the past few years, the ECCSL and FIT have organized several such trade delegations from Belgium to Sri Lanka and vice versa with great success. ECCSL is also the local antenna of FIT in Sri Lanka since several years.
Expressing his thoughts on the business mission Alexis Bossuyt - Trade and Investment Commissioner of Flanders Region said “The Port of Colombo is developing itself as an important strategic hub between Asia and Europe, massive infrastructure and construction developments are going on in Sri Lanka, and the recent visit of the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka to Belgium and Europe highlights the potential for European companies to do business in Sri Lanka. Having such a big delegation of Belgian companies seeking business opportunities in Sri Lanka is a clear sign of willingness of our business community to strengthen commercial ties between Belgium and Sri Lanka. I sincerely hope that concrete results will also be achieved in the short term.”
Established in 1996, the European Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka has been striving to stimulate, strengthen and promote economic and business relations between Sri Lanka and the member countries of the European Union. ECCSL broadly seeks to provide, inter-alia, efficient and professional information, and advisory, consultative, promotional and representative linkages between Sri Lankan and European business entities.
Flanders Investment & Trade (FIT) promotes international enterprise in Flanders in a sustainable way as a key factor in the social and economic development of our region. FIT does so by supporting the international activities of Flemish companies and by attracting foreign investors to Flanders.
