In a bid to further strengthen trade and investment ties with Sri Lanka, Tasmanian Premier, Will Hodgman, and the Minister for State Growth, Matthew Groom led a business delegation from the education, energy, tourism, hospitality and food and beverage sectors to Sri Lanka last week.
Speaking at a business networking event held in Colombo, Prime Minister Hodgman said that Tasmania is well placed to offer new opportunities to Sri Lanka with a world- class international education and tourism sector,a reputation for safe and premium food and a sought after lifestyle and destination for education and investment .
“This is just the beginning of an exciting chapter for both trade and investment ties between Sri Lanka and Tasmania.
There are amazing opportunities for Tasmanian businesses in Sri Lanka and our government is keen to reach out to areas where we consider there are enormous opportunities for growth in Sri Lanka.
We have lined up our priorities in order to capture opportunities that may arise in some of the potential areas of investments that will eventually support the new generation of Sri Lanka as well as Tasmania.”
Tasmanian Premier Will Hodgman is hopeful his 10-day trade mission to India and Sri Lanka will generate more call centre, hospitality and education jobs.
Mr Hodgman returned from the state's inaugural official trip to South-East Asia on Sunday after meeting with politicians and potential investors.
"This is very reminiscent of what it was like, I expect, back in the 1980s when we first started to establish ties with China," he said.
"Since then, of course, we've seen a rapid increase in trade.
"I'm very confident that in future years we'll look back at this inaugural trade mission to India as Sri Lanka as pivotal to increasing trade in those countries as well."
Mr Hodgman used the opportunity to promote the state's pitch for Indian business Sutherland to base a call centre in Tasmania and invited the business services company to visit the state soon.
The Government has aggressively tried to grow the call centre sector, providing financial incentives and payroll tax relief to other businesses including Vodafone, Qantas and M2 Group to secure jobs.
Cricket was also on the agenda with former Australian captain Ricky Ponting joining the Premier in Sri Lanka and India.
Cricket Tasmania and Cricket Sri Lanka have agreed to work on a deal to run exchange programs and explore opportunities for training matches with Tasmania's first grade players.
During the trip, private education and training business B School launched plans to open in the state's north and offer leadership development courses for aspiring business executives from across the world, including India.
