Russian delegation to visit Sri Lanka to boost mutual trade, investment and tourism

By Sanath Nanayakkare

A leading Russian business mission comprising dynamic private companies in sectors such as energy and oil, nuclear power, fertilizer, pharmaceutical manufacturing, information technology, ship building and manufacturing of general products is likely to arrive in Sri Lanka in March 2023, to explore investment opportunities in Sri Lanka, and to identify and connect with Sri Lankan companies with common business interests.

This was revealed at a meeting of the Sri Lanka-Russia Business Council hosted by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce last week.Manjula de Silva, Secretary General and CEO of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce said that the two countries bilateral trade has currently declined to around USD 300 million despite the fact that Russia has become a very important source market for Sri Lanka Tourism.”

“In 2021, when Sri Lanka Tourism had been at a low-ebb, Sri Lanka was fortunate to have over 50,000 Russian tourist arrivals to the country. And in the first 10 months of 2022, Sri Lanka has recorded 57,000 Russian tourist arrivals accounting for 10% of total arrivals to Sri Lanka. By the end of the year, these numbers will move further up, and I believe that 2023 will be an even better year whereas Russian tourist influx is concerned.”

However, he referred to the low bilateral trade volumes and urged the business community in the audience to earnestly explore new avenues to boost trade and investments with Russia, taking advantage of the excellent bilateral relations between the two countries.

“We have tremendous potential to grow investments and trade going forward, and the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI) also will help potential Russian investors to learn everything about fast-tracking the implementation of investment projects in Sri Lanka,” he said.

Renuka Weerakone, Director General of BOI said that her institution is able to and willing to support potential Russian investors to invest in any sector of the economy as they wish.She pointed out that Sri Lanka has declared a dedicated zone of 400 acres for new pharmaceutical ventures and urged the Russian Trade Commissioner to include several Russian pharmaceutical manufacturers on the planned delegation visit to Sri Lanka so that the BOI could show them what Sri Lanka can offer in setting up their plants and how they can carry out their operations in the zone in a win-win situation.”

She explained different investment thresholds which are available to encourage investments in different sectors, the entitlement they would receive to import capital goods on a duty-free basis and about the service the BOI provides to investors by handling Customs functions online to make their life easy.

“We recently introduced a 5-year resident visa for foreign investors reducing the hassle of renewing the documents every year provided they are compliant with the conditions of the relevant agreements, therefore, I urge Russian investors to see for themselves the favorable investment climate when they visit Sri Lanka in March 2023 ” she said.

Trade Commissioner of Russia speaking at the event said that he had had several discussions with Sri Lankan authorities including the Prime Minister and the Minister of Power and energy.

“Most of the discussions centred on energy production, oil and gas and manufacturing of fertilizers. We discussed nuclear power too. These are under consideration at government level. When it comes to tourism, opportunity is open for Sri Lankan visitors to travel to exotic Russian destinations. Other areas we focused on were digitalization of public services, development of agriculture and manufacturing of fertilizers. Russia can also export several types of pharmaceuticals to Sri Lanka such as anti-cancer drugs,” he said.

The Russian Trade Commissioner said that he would send out invitations to Sri Lankan companies to take part in Russia trade shows in 2023.Russian Ambassador Levan Dzhagaryan met with Minister of Power and Energy Kanchana Wijesekera on December 15. The meeting focused on the requirements of Sri Lanka’s energy sector. Accordingly, the fuel requirements, refinery operations, challenges in coal supply and the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed for nuclear energy cooperation with Rosatom – a Russian state-owned corporation specializing in nuclear energy, nuclear non-energy goods and high-tech products – were discussed.