Flood
of export orders thru Export Development Board’s e-market
Daily Mirror - Friday January 2, 2004
Sri
Lanka's pioneering e-market place, www.srilankabusiness.com,
the web portal of the Export Development Board (EDB), which was
opened in September, has made good progress in channelling orders
for a range of products for the small and medium sector. The site
has also facilitated land sales for the establishment of a tourist
complex deep south.
Orders on the basis of online transactions from September have netted
$ 1000 (Rs.1 million) while the orders on the website based promotions
for 2003 have netted a total of $ 117,000 (Rs. 11.7 million). The
EDB believes that there are further prospects for growth.
Advisor to TradenetSL and Managing Director of Sri Lanka Institute
of Information Technology Dr. Lalith Gamage told the Daily Mirror
FT yesterday that the aim of the portal was to develop the SME sector
where it would yield a monthly income of $ 1 million. He said that
the portal has been listed in all the major internet search engines
and that it was listed within the first ten of all the trade sites
in the world which, would enable the Sri Lankan exporters to gain
access to international markets without much expenditure on promotions
or participating at trade fairs.
The EDB which is at the forefront of developing and promoting the
country's products and services for export has played a lead role
in leveraging the Internet for delivering a range e-based services
to the business community. These services which have been a big
boon to the Small and Medium Enterprises sector in particular have
yielded a multitude of trade opportunities.
Web advertisements designed by the TradenetSL Division and hosted
on the EDB site have brought in regular orders for coco peat &
coir twine from Germany and Pakistan to a small scale manufacturer
of coir products where the monthly orders are valued at $ 2000 each
and there are around three orders per month, EDB's Deputy Director
Chitrangani Mubarak said.
The service has also led to successful land deals. Sea side properties
in Hambantota and Tangalle were successfully sold to investors in
the UK and HongKong. These sites are soon to be developed as holiday
resorts brining in further foreign exchange earnings to the country
and providing employment opportunities to the villagers in the area,
The value of the transactions range between $ 25,000 to $ 50,000.
The portal also enabled a novel export item, audio musical files
- "midi files" to find its niche in the world market.
Midi files are exported as file attachments by e-mail or, as diskettes
and CDs. This is done at a personal and individual level where the
exporter receives the equivalent of Rs. 100 per melody where the
exporters earnings are over Rs. 60,000 per month.
Some of the more unusual and unique items seeking export markets
through www.srilankabusiness.com
are midi files from Paranamana Midi Creations, recorded Bana from
Ashoka Record Bar and health stones from Ran Lanka Gems and Jewellery.
Paranamana Midi Creation is a micro enterprise from Sri Lanka who
has successfully developed a niche market for a unique export item
- midi files. Midi files are music files, which the company exports
as attachments to standard e-mail messages. The EDB is now seeking
to further expand the opportunities for this type of venture by
providing a facility for customers to make purchase online by keying
in their credit card details and down load the midi file of their
choice.
There is a promising market among Sri Lankans living abroad for
religious sermons while the use of gemstones for curing various
ailments is becoming popular not only amongst Sri Lankans but also
in some overseas markets. www.srilankabusiness.com
provides an ideal platform to capture this small but exclusive market.
Today the site enjoys an average hit rate of 1000 hits per day and
the total volume of transactions taken place so far is about US
$ 1000. Some of the products that have been successfully traded
are Samahan and Sudhantha toothpaste from Link Natural products
and porcelain tableware from Dankotuwa Porcelain. The portal is
being aggressively promoted in foreign markets through Sri Lanka's
missions overseas, at international trade events and through strategic
linkages with other e-market places of international repute.
The portal also brought in joint venture with a Belgian company
for fruit juice processing.Trade inquiries via e mails have yielded
rich dividends with weekly orders totaling US$4500 for a small scale
exporter of sea food and where a US$ 20,000 monthly order for seafood
to Lebanon is also under negotiation. Regular orders to Canada,
USA and Russia for a garment manufacturing company have also been
clinched.
www.srilankabusiness.com
is the EDB's latest initiative in showcasing the country's products
and services in the world market. The site is developed by Sri Lanka's
leading software engineering company - Affno. This pioneering trading
platform has brought together in one-place suppliers, buyers, shippers,
logistic and finance together with market and product information.
The system is empowered with highly secured software that enables
online purchase and is open to buyers from anywhere in the world
who can connect a computer to the Internet.
