Sri Lanka is planning to draw up a China market entry strategy with the help of a specialist global consultancy firm to boost exports.
The strategy according to Export Development Board (EDB) Market Development Director Anoma Premathilaka, will be to enhance the exports of apparel, tea, rubber, coconut and spices to China.
Sri Lanka has been exporting these products to the Chinese market and the country needs to enhance the value and the volume of exports as it is not very significant at present. Therefore, it is important to ensure proper marketing strategy is been formulated and implemented to capture the Chinese market in a big way, she said.
The EDB will assist the local entrepreneurs in the three main sectors of economy namely, agriculture, industrial and services in capacity building, integrated supportive services and product and market development initiatives.
It will also help them to become more competitive in the international markets, provide opportunities to meet buyers, conduct compliance audits, system development and certification and product testing.
There will be product specific programs to create awareness regarding the market requirements, she said. “Sri Lankan product branding needs improvement.
The global branding and product positioning should focus on sectoral aspect to create visibility.
The EDB supports the entrepreneurs establish market access globally for the country’s products and services.
“For this, we conduct country promotions aimed at advertising the local products and services by having national pavilions and inward and outward buyer missions,” she said.
“We take efforts in creating next generation of local entrepreneurs to
enter the export market and expect to produce 2,000 exporters by way of a development program that is already underway.
“This will ensure that the country is producing exporters to meet the modern requirements of the global customers.
The EDB also provides grants under the export market access support program to encourage budding exporters,” Premathilaka said.
Among the other facilities provided by the EDB to be competitive in the global market are trade facilitation and trade information, enterprise development support scheme and market development.
“Asia is the main focus for EDB and we consider China to be a lucrative market. However, the SME sector is not equipped to deal with the Chinese market at present and the EDB is assisting them to enter in to the Chinese market in a big way,” she said.