Financial Times

Row over Tokyo business conference

A row has broken out over the organization of the Sri Lanka business opportunities conference in Tokyo with top chambers saying they were given just a few days notice before the meeting to put together a delegation.

"We were given just a few days to organize a delegation, which we couldn't do," noted an official at the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCSL). "It's unfortunate because we are an apex chamber with 42 member-chambers and 12,000 members. We could have sent representatives from the north and east that would have shown donors that people from these two regions were present and thus diluted the impact of the absence of the LTTE."

UNDP and the government were involved in the organization of the business forum which followed the donor meeting hosted by the Japanese government held on June 9 and 10. A spokesman for the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) also confirmed that they had to hurriedly organise a delegation. "We would have preferred a few more days notice to organize ourselves," he said.

CCC sent 11 members while the National Chamber of Commerce sent three members. FCCSL didn't send any representatives to the conference while most other smaller chambers representing SMI interests and exporters were not informed.

The issue was raised last Friday at a debriefing meeting of the Tokyo conference chaired by Ken Balendra on behalf of R. Paskaralingam, advisor to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, who was reported to be indisposed. Balendra heads a state committee that looks at speedier use of foreign aid. Organisers acknowledged that there should have been better coordination - in terms of adequate notice - in preparing a private sector delegation.

Federation chairman Nihal Abeysekera has also sent a strong letter of protest to the Sri Lankan organizers of the meeting for the short notice to the chamber. "This was an ideal opportunity to present the northern and eastern chambers to the donor community and we lost it," the federation official said.

Ironically, FCCSL - some months back - organized a workshop at a southern hotel with the assistance of the Japanese private sector to look at priority needs for the private sector in the Regaining Sri Lanka initiative. Some of the recommendations in that report included the need for school development, skills, power projects and railways.

The Federation represents small and medium sectors and has among its members the Yalpanam (Jaffna) chamber of commerce and the chambers of commerce in Trincomalee, Ampara and Batticaloa. Organisers also agree the SMI segment should have been better represented at the Tokyo summit, justifying concerns from some chambers that much of the focus was on big industry and mega projects.

At the Tokyo meeting, presentations were made on investment opportunities in two industrial sectors pre-selected by Japanese counterparts as top-priority topics for the seminar - export manufacturing (with apparel as a prototype) and tourism.

Officials of smaller chambers also said they are yet to get a copy of the Regaining Sri Lanka document. "Chambers of commerce - particularly the ones in the south, north and east - should have been sent copies. The government can't expect one to browse through the document in the official website because it takes a long time to download. At least it should be available at a small fee," one official said.