January | 2018 | Hairong Investments Group Co,. Ltd.

30^th Jan 2018, Chairman Pan Liang visited Hon. Ranawaka, the Minister of Megapolis at his private residence in Colombo. Dr. Kohona, the MD of Hairong (Sri Lanka) and Mr. Vidya Amarapala, the Advisor to the Minister also participated the meeting.

At the beginning of the meeting, Dr. Kohona introduced Hairong Group to the Minister, and explained the scope of our current work. Megapolis as a very important functional authority for overall planning of the nation, Hairong is very interested to collaborate in various fields with Megapolis.

Chairman Pan Liang also expressed his gratitude to the Minister to arrange this meeting. Hairong commits itself to investment in infrastructure construction, energy, tourism, real estate and mining industry in different countries in the world. Currently we concentrate on Sri Lanka as our investment center in South Asia. Under the leadership of Dr. Kohona, Hairong (Sri Lanka) has established relations with senior government officials and different Ministries. It’s a great honor to meet your Hon. Minister. The well-know Port City Project, which is dominating by the Megapolis, is significant to the country’s economic development and international status. Hairong Group is also very keen to invest in this kind of large-scale project in Sri Lanka.

Hon. Ranawaka said, Megapolis welcomes Chinese companies come to Sri Lanka, invest in Sri Lanka. Megapolis has made overall planning for the Colombo district. The future plan comprises a financial city, logistics city, passenger hub, industrial city etc.. There are plenty of opportunities, Megapolis is looking forward to the collaboration with Hairong Group.

27 Jan 2018 Colombo. Chairman Pan Liang along with Hairong delegation have visited the Ministry of Tourism Development of Sri Lanka and met Hon. Minister Amaratunga. Hairong (Sri Lanka) MD Dr. Kohona also participated this meeting.

The Hairong delegation was cordially welcomed by the Hon. Minister. Chairman Pan Liang expressed his gratitude for the Hon. Minister to arrange this meeting with Hairong Group. Hairong Group has been committed itself to integrating global resources, building an international Resources, Capital and Technology Platform, whilst focusing on the economic development of the developing countries. Sri Lanka is the Hub of Hairong Group in South Asia. Under the leadership of Dr. Kohona, Hairong (Sri Lanka) is developing the large-scale investments in infrastructure construction, mining, real-estate, tourism and the other industries. Recently as introduced by Dr. Kohona, we knew about this massive mixed-development tourism project which is initiated by the Ministry of Tourism Development. And we knew that this project has been attached great importance by the Hon. Prime Minister and Minister of Tourism. Sri Lanka is a very important one-belt-one-road partner to China, and famous for its god-blessed tourism resources. Hairong is very interested in developing Sri Lanka tourism industry. Hairong will introduce the innovating concepts, the advanced technology and abundant funds to build an international, environmentally friendly, livable and smart new city. It will attract millions of travelers, generate magnificent foreign exchange and create thousands of employment opportunities.

Hon. Amaratunga said, Dr. Kohona is an old friend of his. Dr. Kohona has made great contribution to the country in fighting against the LTTE and protecting the country’s peace and unification. Dr. Kohona enjoys the high reputation and loved by the people. Today Dr. Kohona introduced Hairong Group to the Ministry and made an inspiring proposal to the country’s tourism industry. The Minister is thrilled about the idea that to build a new modern city in Sri Lanka, and the Minister urged the delegation to prepare a detailed proposal regarding this project, he would like to commit himself to promote the implementation of the project.

After the meeting, the Minister invited the Chairman to watch a beautiful national travel promo video. He also warmly explained the sceneries and famous sites displayed in the video. After the video watching, the Hon. Minister invited the Chairman to take a group photo and gave the Chairman a copy of the video and books as gifts.

The Chairman of Hairong Investment Group Co., Ltd. Mr. Pan Liang, accompanied by Managing Director Dr. Palitha Kohona, accepted an invitation from the president of the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka (SLNCC) Mr. Sujeeve Samaraweera, to a meeting at SLNCC on Friday.

Mr. Samaraweera welcomed Mr. Pan Liang and his delegation to the meeting for further discussion about joining China Federation of Industrial Economics (CFIE) in Co-developing the Belt & Road Industrial Commercial Alliance (BRICA), and cooperation under the “Belt & Road” Initiative.

Hairong Investments Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Hairong Group”) as a strategic partner of CFIE, facilitated the MoU signing ceremony between CFIE and SLNCC at Sri Lanka Economy and Investment Conclave (known as SEIC) on 28 November 2017. Subsequently, Hairong Group is authorized by CFIE to invite SLNCC to join BRICA.

Mr. Pan Liang initially introduced the globalization background of BRICA and its magnificent targets, expressing the welcome to SLNCC to join BRICA to utilize and share the opportunities of cooperation and development among members of alliance.

BRICA is a development strategy initially proposed by CFIE, at present, members of alliance are comprised of 29 well-known Industrial & Commerce Associations covering 26 countries in Asia, Europe, Africa, South America and etc. consisting of over 2,300,000 member enterprises. BRICA is the vast platform that facilitates understanding and enhances collaboration among the member enterprises, pursuing extensive bilateral and multilateral activities via combination of online and offline mode, to facilitate the exchange of corporate information among member enterprises and promote cooperation.

Mr. Samaraweera expressed his gladness to the presentation, expecting to join BRICA at the earliest through the procedures of application and expecting to hold the signing ceremony， in the meantime, leading Sri Lankan business delegation to visit China.

The organisers of this launch, AISEX 2018, Mr Arjun Dharmadasa and his team at LECS must be congratulated for their professionalism and the highly impressive media reaction they have generated. They have also assembled a stellar panel to address you today.

2. Its flexibility and versatility. It has a reputation for adjusting and responding to the rapidly changing trends in the world of fashion. This has made it a partner of choice for some of the top brands in the world, GAP, Banana Republic, Zara, Victoria’s Secret, Macy’s, Marks and Spencer, to name a few.

4. Its compliance with global labour and environmental standards which has enabled it to market its products under the slogan “Garments Without Guilt”. Women’s and child rights related global standards are followed scrupulously. No children slave away in our factories and women are provided transport to go home after work. Many of our factories have shifted to solar and biomass for their power requirements, well ahead of its competition elsewhere. It used to give me particular pride to highlight these achievements when I was the ambassador and permanent representative to the UN in New York.

Although our costs may be higher, our reliability as a supplier continues to attract buyers. In fact, after the termination of the Mutifiber Agreement in 2005, despite the fears that China would swamp the market, Sri Lankan apparel manufacturers continued to increase market share.

Sri Lanka also has succeeded in fostering the apparel industry without undergoing some of the problems confronting many of our neighbours in the region. By design or by accident, our factories are located in rural areas, away from the cities. The workers, mainly women, travel to work from their homes and live with their families. We have avoided the overcrowding of our cities and many associated social problems, particularly of young women drifting in to cities looking for work and ending up on the wrong side of the street. As a result, Colombo, is still a very livable city.

A robust apparel industry will attract foreign investments which is essential for the country as it continues up the ladder of development. We must make policy adjustments to attract more foreign investments. Make it easier for FDI to seek Sri Lanka as a preferred destination. The high end apparel industry is a well established target that can be made available.

An opportunity opens up with China’s stated goal of coring out its apparel industry for cost and environmental reasons. Sri Lanka with its established reputation could use this opportunity to attract some of the Chinese manufacturers to locate their plants here. It also creates the possibility of developing our design and advanced fashion industry which will provide local talent with another outlet. However training, proper design institutes and other facilities are a must. The industry and the government must collaborate in this. Our IT industry can expand to cater to online orders and ontime delivery demands.

There is a fear that a looming Labour shortage will affect the progress of the industry. But there is a solution to this challenge. Sri Lanka exports over a million workers, mainly women, to work as lowly paid domestics in the Middle East. There are many social issues that result from this phenomenon, including the men remaining behind using the wages repatriated by the wives turning to alcohol, children growing up without adequate supervision and child abuse not to mention the abuse of women in the host countries. Perhaps with better wages and training they could be retained, thus helping to address our own Labour needs. The increased cost could be an issue. The industry, along with the Government, civil society organisations and other interested parties could combine to create incentives for our workforce to remain in Sri Lanka. Better training for the workers, better education and health facilities for them and their children, opportunities for the workers, women in particular, to advance themselves, etc.