Jayantha Karunaratne has been elected as the new President, while Kaushal Rajapakse and Dilshan Rajapakse have been elected as the Vice Presidents of the National Chamber of Exporters of Sri Lanka (NCE) during the 28th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Chamber, a recent statement on the matter noted.
Karunaratne is the Founder, Chairman, and Managing Director of the Imperial Teas Group. His 40-plus years of experience in the tea trade began in 1977 when he served as a Tea Taster at a leading tea export company in Sri Lanka.
Extensive travel has given him an in depth knowledge of overseas markets and trading concepts and methodologies. He is the immediate Past Chairman of the Colombo Tea Traders Association and it is during his tenure as Chairman of CTTA that Karunaratne headed and facilitated the transition from an out-cry auction system to an e-Auction due to the severe implications caused on the tea industry from the Covid-19 pandemic, the statement went on to say.
He is also a Past President of the Tea Exporters’ Association. He was a Board Member of the Sri Lanka Tea Board and a member of the promotion and marketing committee of the SLTB, former President of the Sri Lanka-Russia Business Council (SLRBC). He is also a member of the American Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka. In September 2007, he led a delegation of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce of the Trade & Investment Promotion Mission to Russia and the Ukraine. He was also a member of the Sri Lanka team that conducted negotiations with Russia regarding the latter's proposed accession to the World Trade Organisation.
The statement further noted that In addition to the election of Council Members and Office Bearers, four Patrons for the year 2023 were appointed.
Ravi Jayawardena, the Outgoing President, briefed the audience on the Chamber's activities throughout his presidency, and Jayantha Karunaratne, the newly elected President, expressed his vision for the Chamber for the year 2023. Shiham Marikar, SG/CEO of NCE, provided an overview of the activities planned for 2023, which will be carried out by the Chamber under the direction of the newly elected President.
Murtaza Jafferjee, Chairman of the Advocata Institute and CEO of JB Securities Ltd., delivered his Keynote Address, highlighting very important information with facts and figures about the current situation of the country's economy and trade, as well as an eye opener on the areas that can be looked at that have a huge potential on Exports.
During the Post Business Forum, NCE symbolically exchanged a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with IND-EXPO Certification Ltd., a certification and training organisation accredited by the Sri Lanka Accreditation Board (SLAB) to award certificates for HACCP and ISO, to carry out the certification process of “Certificate of Ethical Trading”, ensuring transparency and credibility to the process.
NCE initiated the “Certificate of Ethical Trading” programme in 2019, exclusively for its member exporters who completed a conformity assessment, as it has become essential for exporters to conform to changing regulatory needs and consumer preferences through good practices related to trade and labour, ethical behaviour, environment and society, in order to gain a competitive advantage in international markets.