Financial News from Sri Lanka:
The 40-year-old Sri Lankan Export Development Board[ EDB] on 1 August is the leading state organization for export development and promotion. As a Policy Advisor, Monitor, Promoter, Facilitator and Knowledge Provider, the Board performs countless roles in the export industry of the economy in fulfilling its duties of implementing policies to achieve domestic export objectives.
The EDB’s vision of “Positioning Sri Lanka as a Prominent Export Hub for Innovative Products & Services” is aligned with the Government’s development vision and the National Export Strategy vision.
The EDB’s mission, “Enable Competitiveness in Exports through Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Global Integration,” focuses on raising foreign exchange income and contributing to the domestic economy.
In the 1970s, the International Trade Center (ITC), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Tariff Development, urged the establishment in member nations of the Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) with the aim of promoting and developing export trade. The establishment of the Secretariat for Export Promotion in Sri Lanka in 1972 did not accomplish much. This inspired the company community to open a dialog within their society to create a domestic body’s urgent need for export promotion and growth.
The EDB was set up under late Lalith Athulathmudali’s direction, then Hon. Trade & Shipping Minister under the 1979 Sri Lankan Export Development Act No. 40 on 1 August 1979. The first important phase of this Act was to empower EDB to perform its tasks at the highest level in the best interest of the country with broad powers on export promotion and growth.
