On July 20, 2022, Sri Lanka Ambassador to China, Dr. Palitha Kohona, was invited to visit Wenzhou Free Trade Zone. He visited the storage, logistics and processing park in the free trade zone. Ambassador Kohona was received by Mr. Hu Ningtong, Deputy Director of Wenzhou Oujiangkou Industrial Cluster, and Mr. Wang Junwei, Chairman of Wenzhou Free Trade Zone. The ambassador was accompanied by Mr. Pan Liang, chairman of Hairong Investment Group, and Mr. Pan Guanjun, general manager of Hairong (Beijing) Technology Co. LTD.
During the meeting, the two parties had a friendly discussion on the international trading, cross-border e-commerce and the cooperation with Lanka Center. The ambassador believed that the current chaotic situation in Sri Lanka is temporary and once it is stabilized, they need to import a lot of living materials and they also would like to export their products, such as black tea, gems, rubber, spices, fruit products, marine products. For this reason, the ambassador expressed his support for the “Lanka Center” to be settled in Wenzhou Free Trade Zone, and hoped that the Wenzhou government would give more preferential policies.
In March 2020, the State Council officially approved the establishment of Wenzhou Comprehensive Free Trade Zone. Wenzhou Comprehensive Free Trade Zone is located in Wenzhou Oujiangkou Industrial Cluster, with a planning area of 1.44 square kilometers, focusing on the construction of “three clusters”, namely, the emerging high-end intelligent export manufacturing cluster, Wenzhou high-quality traditional industry export manufacturing cluster and Wenzhou cross-border e-commerce cluster, focusing on building three centers: a processing manufacturing Center as the leading, sales service center as the support, logistics distribution center as supporting for the centers.
Spring is coming with blooming and good luck! On April 17, 2022, the Embassy of Sri Lanka in China held the Sri Lanka New Year Celebration. Mr. Pan Liang, Chairman of Hairong Group and Mr. Pan Guanjun, General Manager of Sri Lanka Platform were invited to attend this event.
During the event, Dr. Palitha Kohona, the Ambassador of Sri Lanka to China, gave a New Year’s speech, expressing his thanks to the guests, at the same time, he said that China-Sri Lanka are good friends, this year is the 65th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries as well as the 70th anniversary of the signing of the Rubber-Rice Pact. Sri Lanka has been seriously affected by the outbreak of the epidemic, and China has helped Sri Lanka many times. The “Belt and Road” initiative launched by China has brought many good opportunities to Sri Lanka. He hoped that the epidemic would under control soon and wished the future of Sino-Sri Lanka cooperation would be better!
The epidemic has indeed brought immeasurable damage to the world, especially to countries like Sri Lanka, where tourism is the major industry of the country. But the opportunity always comes after the crisis, and hope everything will be fine soon.
Best wishes to Sri Lanka!
In September 29th, the seminar was holding in Sri Lanka embassy in China and announced that Sri Lanka will participate in the 4th CIIE.
In the seminar, Mr. Pan Guanjun, Managing director of Hairong (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd delivered a speech, introducing the Sri Lanka Platform and recommended some Sri Lankan products, tourism projects and investment oppotunities to the media.
China International Import Expo (referred to as “CIIE”), also known as “Import Expo”, hosted by the Ministry of Commerce of the People’s Republic of China, Shanghai Municipal People’s Government. It is the world’s first large-scale national exhibition in import-oriented and designed to firmly support trade liberalization, economic globalization as well as taking the initiative to open the market to the world. On November 5th, 2018, the first China International Import Expo was officially launched at the National Convention and Exhibition Center (Shanghai).
In the 4th CIIE, Sri Lanka will have two booth, one will display food and beverage, which includes the famous Ceylon tea and coconut water., etc.
The other booth will be jewelry show, in addition to the well-known blue sapphire. There will be a blue star sapphire stone, more than 500kg, worth over $500 million, first debuted after digging up.
During the event, Mr. Pan Guanjun, managing director of Hairong (Beijing) technology Co., Ltd said that Sri Lanka platform will play an active role to collabrate with Sri Lanka Embassy in China, fullly using the infulence of the Expo, further promoting Sri Lanka culture as well as showing the high-quality Sri Lankan products to China and even the world.
On July 11, 2021, the Sri Lanka Economic and Investment Conclave 2021 and the opening ceremony of the Sri Lanka Platform were held at the Embassy of Sri Lanka in Beijing, China. The event was hosted by the Embassy of Sri Lanka in China and organized by Hairong (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. Participants in this event included representatives from more than 50 companies, including MCC, Enfi Group, CMEC, Conch Group, Huadian Group, and JD, as well as media reporters.
Dr. Palitha T. B. Kohona, Ambassador of Sri Lanka to China, Mr. Xu Xiangchun, Vice President of MCC, Mr. Pan Guanjun, General Manager of Hailong (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. and Chiranjaya, President of China Sri Lanka Association for Trade and Economic Cooperation, delivered speeches respectively. Ambassador Kohona said that Sri Lanka is a beautiful and friendly country with good investment opportunities, rich tourism resources, and many special products. He hoped that with the launch of the Sri Lanka Platform, the economic and trade cooperation between China and Sri Lanka will be promoted, more Sri Lankan products will enter the huge Chinese market, and more Chinese friends will be attracted to visit Sri Lanka for vacation and investment. Mr. Xu Xiangchun, Vice President of China Metallurgical Group said that Metallurgical Group has been cultivating in Sri Lanka for many years and expressways are one of their masterpieces. The next goal is to jointly invest in Sri Lanka’s mineral sands project with Hairong Group. He hopes that the project will be completed soon. Mr. Pan Guanjun, General Manager of Hairong Technology Co., Ltd introduced the project overview of the Sri Lanka Platform. He said that as the main operator of the center, he will be determined and courageous to write a new chapter in international cooperation under the “Belt and Road” initiative. Mr. Chiranjaya, President of China Sri Lanka Association for Trade and Economic Cooperation, expressed his warm congratulations on the opening ceremony of the center on behalf of the Association. At the same time, he expressed that he would encourage relevant Sri Lankan enterprises and suppliers to collaborate with the Sri Lanka Platform to bring high-quality Sri Lankan products into the Chinese market.
The major part of this event was the opening ceremony of the Sri Lanka platform. Dr. Palitha Kohorna, Sri Lanka ambassador to China, and Mr. Pan Guanjun, General Manager of Hairong (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. jointly unveiled the medal of Sri Lanka Platform.
During the Q&A session, Mr. Pan Liang, Chairman of Hairong Group, participated in the dialogue. He believed that we could focus on five aspects of investments in Sri Lanka at present. The first is tourism. Sri Lanka has rich tourism resources but lacks development of basic construction, including related facilities and services. The second is agriculture, the north area of Sri Lanka is a plain area, but there is a serious water shortage, desalination of seawater should be considered to develop high value-addition crops planting industry, such as medicinal herbs, fruit, and vegetables. The third is the fishery industry, Sri Lanka is rich in marine resources and can develop Pelagic fishing (such as tuna, etc.) and offshore farming (such as shrimp, crab, etc.). Fourthly, industrial parks. Sri Lanka is in a strategic location and has bilateral trade agreements with many countries on favorable terms, and Chinese enterprises can take advantage of this to move businesses to Sri Lanka. The fifth is the infrastructure, especially green energy, the Sri Lanka government is strongly promoting photovoltaic power generation and wind power generation.
During the dinner, many guests performed wonderful programs to cheer everyone up, and the whole event was held in a warm and cheerful atmosphere.
On May 25, 2021, Sri Lanka Ambassador to China, Dr. Palitha Kohona, visited Hairong (Beijing) Technology Co. Ltd. Hairong Technology is committed to establishing a trading platform called “Sri Lanka platform”.
Dr. Kohona has always been concerned about the establishment of the “Sri Lanka platform”. His visit is mainly to express condolences to the team as well as the business communication with Mr. Pan Guanjun, general manager of Hairong Technology. He shared several valuable suggestions on the establishment and operation of the platform. He looked forward to the launching of the platform soon， and both parties believe that the “Sri Lanka platform” will effectively promote the development of related industries and tourism in Sri Lanka.
April 14, 2021, is Sri Lanka’s traditional New Year, the Sri Lankan Embassy in China held a celebration event.
Mr. Pan Liang, Chairman of Hairong Group, was invited to participate in this event. The embassy also invited many Chinese guests, including Mr.Sha Zukang, senior diplomat, former Chinese ambassador to the United Nations, and Mr. Chen Song, Deputy Director of Asia Department of Foreign Ministry.
The event was conducted in a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere, I would like to take this opportunity to wish the Sri Lankans a Happy New Year and wish the friendship between China and Sri Lanka last forever.
Good thing comes in pair. It was also the day that Ambassador Dr. Palitha Kohana Presented the credentials on behalf of Sri Lanka to President Xi Jinping.
On March 1, 2021, the Chairman of Hairong Group, Mr. Pan Liang, and the delegation visited Ningbo Today Food Co., Ltd., which is the “National Leading Enterprise in Agricultural Industry”, and got a warm reception from Mr. Chen Yifang, the Chairman of Ningbo Today Food Company.
Today Foods is one of the largest tuna processing companies in China, with an annual processing volume of 50,000 MT. During the discussion, Chairman Mr. Pan Liang suggested Chairman Mr. Chen Yifang to visit Sri Lanka. The abundant marine fishery resources in this South Asia island, the enabling investment environment, is favorable for Today Food company to expand their business territory.
The two parties proposed several constructive ideas for joint investment in the development of Sri Lanka’s fishery and related industries and finally agreed to visit Sri Lanka together when the pandemic is under-controlled. We look forward to having more investment opportunities in the future.
On January 14, 2021, the seminar on establishment of the “Sri Lanka platform” was held at the Sri Lankan Embassy in China. The Ambassador of Lanka to China Dr. Kohona and the Chairman of Hairong Group Mr. Pan Liang and his team attended the meeting.
The meeting proposed that Sri Lanka has excellent characteristic products and rich tourism resources, while China is a huge consumer market. Now, we need a bridge to link the two party to achieve complementary advantages and resource sharing. Hairong Group plans to invest in the “Sri Lanka platform”, to enhance the cultural exchanges and economic cooperation between China and Sri Lanka.
The plan was endorsed by the Sri Lanka Embassy. They stated that both the Embassy and the Sri Lanka government will fully support this work, especially in the recommendation and selection of Sri Lanka’s local suppliers and products.
On January 7, 2021, a technical analysis seminar on the Sri Lanka mineral sands project was held at the conference center in the headquarters of ENFI Group. Mr. Pan Liang, Chairman of Hairong Group, Mr. Xu Xiangchun, vice president of China Metallurgical Group, and Mr. Wei Jiaming, deputy general manager of ENFI Group attended the meeting. After the technical discussion, the total estimated investment of the project is 310 million U.S. dollars, and the annual output will reach 250 million U.S. dollars after completion.