CSE is to hold a forum in 2011

Colombo Stock Exchange (CSE) is to hold a high-profile Investor Forum in Sri Lanka early part of 2011, through a Public Private Partnership in a bid to place the country’s investment sector on a global scale through world-class promotional activities. 

Speaking to The Bottom Line, CSE Director, Hiran de Alwis said that Colombo Bourse had planned to hold such a high-profile forum to put Sri Lanka on investor’s map as a holistic approach to win investors. 

“Although CSE became the second best performing stock exchange for 2009, we believe that it can achieve much more in terms of bringing more local and foreign investors. Both these issues have been highlighted in our Annual Report released recently. As a nominee of the Finance Ministry, I presented a proposal to organise this event as a Public Private Partnership and it was well-accepted,” de Alwis. 

“The CSE believes that the time is ripe for placing the investment story of Sri Lanka on the world stage through high profile promotional activities and will be happy to work in partnership with the relevant agencies of the government in such an endeavour,” CSE Chairman, Nihal Fonseka said in the Annual Report. 

CSE was looking at spearheading the project in partnership with Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BoI) in concurrence with Ministry of Economic Finance and Ministry of Finance.

The event was scheduled for early part of 2011, possibly in parallel to the Cricket World Cup Tournament. “You see this is an image building exercise which will be a great boon to our country’s economy. Not only the broker community but all stakeholders will benefit from this in terms of investment inflow and employment generation on a macro level,” de Alwis said. “I think the time is right. Foreign investors are looking at huge volumes and presently the CSE is exploring possibilities of how we can increase its magnitude and liquidity,” he added.

Adopted from "The Nation"............