Sri Lanka launches ambitious blueprint for global printing hub
Sri Lanka’s printing community may be small, but they are now being brought under one umbrella with an ambitious blueprint to transform the country as the global printing hub especially for the Asia Pacific region. The Sri Lanka Association of Printers (SLAP), the authoritative body representing the interests of the printing community, has stepped into its 61st year by unveiling the printing hub plan at its “Sri Lanka Print 2018”, a biennial event which concluded recently.
A White Paper has been prepared with the aim of achieving this objective through the strong partnership from the industry while taking advantage of Sri Lanka’s strategic location in the Indian Ocean, architect of the strategic plan and Managing Director of DESIGNLOGICS (Pvt) Ltd Dhammikka Siriwardhana told the Business Times.
The island nation’s appeal lies in its prime geographical position at the crossroads of vast Asian markets like China, India, West Asia and the Asia Pacific, he said adding that his out of the box plan is aimed at leveraging this advantage to make the country an ideal destination for value added printing. He noted that the local printing industry currently provides a wide range of products to the export market ranging from commercial printing to quality packaging materials such as tea cartons, garment tags and labels and it is a supporting service for major export sectors.
The Sri Lankan label and package printing companies should move rapidly towards more automation of both their administration and production process workflows, using sophisticated management information systems (MIS) to be competitive in the world market, he added.
Many local printers are currently using high-tech state-of –the-art offset/digital facilities and 38 to 40 per cent of their capacity is still unutilised, he claimed.
The capability of the industry has been further strengthened with 276 four colour offset machines with a capacity of printing 4 million sheets per hour being maintained by local printers, he revealed.
It has been proposed to open avenues for them to make use of their full capacity to cater to the increasing consumer demand both locally and internationally, he said. The Print 2018 exhibition stallholders had been able to secure printing machinery and product orders to the value of Rs.748 million; he revealed stressing that this showed the potential of the local industry.
Printing is a catalyst for all sectors in value addition and is an essential need of any type of business involving packaging or advertising, publishing, etc.
The White Paper presented by this young energetic entrepreneur who entered the printing arena at the age of 16 years, has suggested to follow standards of other hub economies, like Singapore, China Hong Kong or Taiwan which have low corruption indicators, efficient fiscal and legal infrastructure and competitive tax systems.
These are precisely some of the benchmarks that Sri Lanka can achieve, Mr. Siriwardhana emphasised noting that the local printing industry has a room-full of printers processing knowledge, expertise and fantastic facilities. Sri Lanka should be an international meeting point between suppliers and companies from all over the world interested in initiating modern high tech printing ventures, he suggested.
To overcome the challenge of market saturation, one of the options was to look towards the global aspects so as to attract a bigger market share, he said pointing out that some of the countries in the world, particularly in the Asian and African regions are still to acquire skills in printing. The ‘going global’ initiative proposed in the White Paper highlighted that Sri Lanka should explore the possibility of expanding and growing printing operations in those countries through contacts.
In the face of all the technological developments, the globalisation of end-user brand markets, and the capabilities of online business, Sri Lankan printing firms will be provided with necessary assistance to join with regional companies to form multinational suppliers, he disclosed.
The White Paper has stressed the importance of arranging local delegations of printers to visit countries like Cambodia, Nepal and Bhutan as well as West Asia and some African countries to showcase Sri Lanka’s printing industry development to achieve this objective, he disclosed.
Despite the overall printing volume declining in recent years, higher-value consumer packaging and labels in emerging markets have provided stronger revenue growth.
Sri Lanka should take advantage of this situation without delay; he said emphasising that local printers are being made aware through these proposals and not to miss the bus this time.
Sri Lanka Print 2018, the three day event of local printers, has been able to support the Sri Lankan printing industry to form the required connections as well as provide training to enable them to excel in their operations outside of Sri Lanka, he added.