Sri Lankan Delegation Visits Istanbul Chamber of Industry

  • 15.08.2017
  • News
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The Istanbul Chamber of Industry (ICI) hosted the Sri Lankan delegation, which is visiting Türkiye to discuss avenues for economic cooperation. At the meeting hosted by İrfan Özhamaratlı, Vice Chairman of ICI, at Odakule, the Sri Lankan State Minister of International Trade Sujeewa Senasinghe was the head of the Sri Lankan delegation.


İrfan Özhamaratlı, Vice Chairman of ICI

During the meeting, Mr. Özhamaratlı gave insights to the participants regarding Türkiye’s and Istanbul’s economy and ICI’s works. Özhamaratlı said that the two countries would benefit more from a partnership rather than a competition in the ready-made garment industry. Emphasizing the fact that there used to be an Ottoman consulate for trade relations in Sri Lanka, Özhamaratlı pointed out that the bilateral trade volume between Sri Lanka and Türkiye was sorely lacking. Touching upon ICI’s Sri Lanka Country Day conference last May, Özhamaratlı said that they will continue their operations in cooperation.


Sri Lankan State Minister of International Trade, Sujeewa Senasinghe

In his remarks, the Sri Lankan State Minister of International Trade Sujeewa Senasinghe said that Sri Lanka was back on the track of growth with the stability being regained after 30 years of civil strife. Underlining that, with its low labor costs, Sri Lanka has the potential to become Asia’s new production hub, Senasinghe also added that they were expecting investments from Türkiye and that they wanted Turkish companies to move their production to Sri Lanka to penetrate the Asian market together.

In addition to ICI Assembly Member Mustafa Güler, Hasan Tepe from TEPAR Tekstil, Ahmet Özer from Telasis Tekstil, Sahar Misaghi from Deridesen Etiket, Melih Aner from ORKA Tekstil attended the meeting with the Sri Lanka Ambassador to Türkiye H. E. Pakeer Mohideen Amza, the Trade Coordinator at Embassy of Sri Lanka Mehmet Emin Berk, the Sri Lankan State Minister of International Trade Sujeewa Senasinghe, the Senior Deputy Director of the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka Pamela Sumithrarachchi and the Secretary General of the Joint Apparel Association Forum of Sri Lanka Tuli Cooray.