BOC launches ‘Export Circle’ to drive SMEs to the level of institutional exporters

By Sanath Nanayakkare

BOC’s newest initiative’ Export Circle’ is designed to facilitate Sri Lanka’s SME exporters to climb the ladder and become diversified institutional level exporters, without being stuck in a rut forever, D.P.K Gunasekera, General Manager of Bank of Ceylon said yesterday.

“Earning substantial foreign exchange will have a direct influence on our economic development, so one of the most vital inflows we want is more foreign exchange earned from our exports, and we need to boost this income beyond the conventional export basket. In the past it was said that no nation would develop without innovations. But in today’s world the fact of the matter is; if a nation doesn’t innovate and export innovative goods to meet the demands of the consumers, that nation will never develop itself,” he said.

“We once visited a customer of the Bank of Ceylon who imports base oil and processes it into a line-up of lube base oil products for export. He told us that he had been inspired by how lube base oil refinery in South Korea set a milestone in South Korean base oil market. He told us although South Korea entirely depended on imported raw material to make this product range, it has today emerged as a leading supplier of lube base oil, acquiring a 30% of the world’s market share. This shows what is important is not just what kind of natural resources a country has, but how much talent, innovative thinking and commitment a nation has, in order to broad base their export product portfolio. The Bank of Ceylon’s newest initiative will help fill this gap and support entrepreneurs of that ilk,” he said.

BOC General Manager made these remarks at a forum held yesterday in line with the Bank’s 82nd Anniversary celebrations which also saw the ceremonious launch of the BOC “Export Circle”, by Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa via virtual screen from Temple Trees.

The move was initiated by the Trade Finance Division of BOC with the aim of accommodating exporters from all-walks-of-life. This fully-fledged one stop export unit located at the Bank’s Head Office ‘Trade Services’ department, is built with a state-of-the-art ambiance to add a relaxed and pleasant customer experience.

Further speaking Gunasekara said,”The programme has the intention of accommodating the financial and non-financial needs of these exporters and their supply chain management. This novel ‘circle’ concept will provide a tailor-made service with a credit package and a new deposit scheme. Among many useful facilities the exporters will experience are the trade information-desk which will provide up to date, end-to-end supply chain information, high standard advisory/consultancy services which is expected to iron out issues that could emerge when carrying out export transactions and assistance of business registration related services from documentation to other procedures which are crucial for the exporter.”

“Launching this programme is not enough. Now we have to go out and facilitate entrepreneurs who possess this kind of talent and facilitate them with financial and non-financial support. We should educate them on how to optimise their export earnings, how their businesses could be financially savvy in the overseas market and even provide them with currency hedging strategies they would need to know as exporters. Especially we are going to assist SMEs with an export potential or already exporting to come up to institutional level. It is the duty of BOC to facilitate exporters to bring in more foreign exchange and contribute to the development of the country,” he said.