With Sri Lanka’s first ever participation at the Genoa Boat Show, in Italy Sri Lankan companies received remarkable response on the boats displayed at the show.
Also they got ample opportunity to meet buyers from across the globe and explore opportunities to connect to the Italian boat building value chain by manufacturing components and linking Sri Lanka’s excellent technical capabilities to the Italian boat building industry.
The Boat & Ship Building sector is identified as a focused sector in the National Export Strategy (NES) 2018-2020 is making strides in the Italian market.
This sector is a leading industry and an emerging export sector offering a wide variety of products and services to international markets.
A leading Sri Lankan Boat manufacturer was able to obtain orders for the boats displayed at the show to the value of Euro 6,900 (Ex – Factory) and other companies are negotiating with the business inquiries they received.
EDB with the boat Building Technology Improvement Institute (BTI), the private sector industry association has commenced the “ICOMIA Asia Project” to profile Sri Lanka’s Boat Industry to identify and understand obstacles to growth of the recreational marine sector in Asia, thereby unlocking industry potential, gain support of the Government Authorities and develop a friendly recreational boating environment in the region.
A “Grow Boating Campaign” is also initiated to promote boating as a lifestyle in Sri Lanka and thereby improve the internal and external market demand for boating related products and services in Sri Lanka including boats manufactured in Sri Lanka.
EDB will continue to support the industry in resolving their issues and creating opportunity to them to grow in the international market.
The increasing demand for boats worldwide regional and local for fishing, industrial, commercial and leisure purposes open up huge opportunities and new markets for Sri Lanka, due to its strategic location, highly trainable workforce and the labour cost advantage.
The government having identified the importance and the potential of the development of the sector has made arrangements to allocate funds through the National Budget 2018 to establish infrastructure facilities for berthing, launching and testing (slipways/launching pads) and establish a breakwater in Kapparathota (Weligama) to facilitate launching.
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