REPORT ON BSM AT COLOMBO 2009

The 2nd Buyer Sellers meet cum Exhibition of Footwear Components was held on 2nd & 3rd March 2009 at Hotel Galle Face Colombo, Sri Lanka. The BSM was organized with MDA assistance from CLE. 18 member companies participated in the two day meet. The Chairman of the Footwear Advisory Board, Industrial development Board of Sri Lanka, Mr Ranjith Hettiarchy, was instrumental in making the event a grand success. Extensive pre-event publicity campaign was undertaken by releasing advertisements in all leading newspapers in English, Singhalese and Tamil languages. Banners and boards were also put up at important locations in Colombo. Apart from this, Invitations were also sent out to the industry by courier, email and by hand. The BSM was inaugurated on 2nd march at 10.00 am by Mr. Anil Koswatta, Chairman Export Development Board of Sri Lanka in the presence of Mr Santosh Jha, Counselor Economic & Commerce High Commission of India and other distinguished guests. Mr O.P. Pandey Regional Director Council for Leather Exports India welcomed the gathering. Mr Jha in his address praised the efforts of IFCOMA and also touched upon the subject of FTA with Sri Lanka which he said was one sided in favor of Srilanka as most of the items falling under Footwear components were in the negative list, whereas they were allowed to be imported by India on Concessional rate of duty, he promised to take up this anomaly with the Sri Lankan government. Mr Ranjit Hettiarchy was all praise for the Indian participants as we had not cancelled the BSM in spite of the terror situation in Colombo a few days earlier. He informed the gathering that the leather sector was the 2nd largest export earner for Sri Lanka.

He stressed upon the Sri Lankan industrialists that they should join hands with us in making Sri Lanka increase its Footwear exports and said they would also welcome JV's with Indian companies. He informed the gathering that a Leather fair was being organized by them in November 2009 and invited participation from IFCOMA in the same. Mr Hettiarchy also informed the gathering that a Footwear training institute will soon be set up at Colombo in collaboration with FDDI. Mr Vipan Seth, V. President IFCOMA (South) delivered the vote of thanks. In his address he assured the Sri Lankan Footwear manufacturers that all support in terms of footwear components will be provided by us and urged the industrialists to work towards making the sector as the number one export earner of their country. He also invited all the gathering to visit the fMM&T fair in May to take advantage of the products that would be on display at the exhibition. Thereafter the event was inaugurated by lighting of the lamp and the guests were taken around the stalls by the president. More than 300 trade visitors attended the fair during the two days. The event was also covered by the press & media On 3rd March evening a dinner was organized by us (with contribution from all the participants) which was attended by all the prominent footwear manufacturers including Mr Cesar Panduro Arevalo, CEO Bata Sri Lanka, who had just taken over the reins two days ago from his previous incumbent All the participating members were quite satisfied with the BSM and have shown interest to participate again in the next BSM that we organize. It is highly recommended that we participate in the November exhibition as the Sri Lanka market has just started growing and has a good potential for our components, who ever penetrates first gets the advantage, moreover, we have logistic advantage and cultural common backgrounds and as such the Sri Lankans feel comfortable working with India

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