Due to COVID-19 and its impact on the Australian economy, chances are remote for Sri Lanka in terms of engaging the conventional promotional strategies and activities to promote trade and investment ,tourism in coming months, probably until end of 2020, said Abdul Raheem, Consul Commercial -Consulate General of Sri Lanka in Sydney.
Speaking at a Webinar on ‘Market Enhancement for Sri Lankan Products and Services in Australia’, organised by Sri Lanka Export Development Board, he said all the trade fairs and events have been cancelled or postponed until next year. Further, Australian international borders will be closed until mid-2021, hence chances of arranging inward and outward trade delegations to and from Australia are remote.
Furthermore, the hope for the revival of domestic travel trade is also challenging as state borders are still closed. There is a travel ban on Australian travelling overseas until further notice and borders are still closed for international travellers. Speaking on bi-lateral trade with two countries, he said total trade in 2019 was US$ 352 million and balance of trade was US$ 47 million in favour of Sri Lanka .
Moreover, Sri Lanka’s exports under the Australian GSP reached US$ 86 million in 2019.
Meanwhile Jamitha Pathirana, CEO of Dynamic (pvt) Ltd and Member of Supply Chain and Logistics of Australia said that creating long -term and sustainable partnerships with Australia is extremely difficult without ground knowledge and support for Sri Lankan exporters.
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