September 08, 2020
His Excellency Mahinda Rajapaksa
Prime Minister of Sri Lanka
Prime Minister’s Office
No.58, Sir Ernest De Silva Mawatha,
Colombo 7, Sri Lanka
Excellency:
We are delighted to extend our congratulations and best wishes to you on your appointment to
the exalted office of Prime Minister of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka for the fourth
time. The swearing in ceremony on Sunday, August 9th instant was momentous and historical.
Our sincere wishes to you and your Cabinet of Ministers as you embark on an ambitious plan to
strengthen and enhance the socio-economic framework of our beautiful island nation. With the
generous mandate you received from the people of Sri Lanka, we are confident you will navigate
the economic growth while diversifying our export potential to have a healthy balance of trade.
In the same tone, we are equally confident that your government will stimulate the inflow of
foreign direct investment (FDI) to the country. All in all, we see a bright future ahead for Sri Lanka.
The Toronto-based Canada-Sri Lanka Business Council (CSLBC) was formed in 1990, to promote
bilateral trade, investment, technology transfer, tourism and industrial cooperation between
Canada and Sri Lanka. To this end we have been at the center of proactive work to meet our end
objectives. The council was formed 30 years ago by a core group of Canadian businessmen led by
Sir Christopher Ondaatje working in concurrence with the former Sri Lanka High Commissioner
in Canada, Mr. Walter Rupesinghe. It was an auspicious beginning for us as we welcomed a highranking team of businessmen in 1991 led by the Greater Colombo Economic Commission (GCEC),
the precursor to the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka. Over the last 30 years, we have had many
business delegations visiting to and from Sri Lanka and Canada with a sense of purpose to
promote bilateral trade and investment to Sri Lanka. The success of these trade missions has led
to a strong commercial bond between the two countries further reinforced by the two diplomatic
missions in both jurisdictions.
In 1991, our counterpart organization – the Sri Lanka-Canada Business Council (SLCBC) was
formed in Colombo under the able leadership of its inaugural president Mr. Hemaka Amarasuriya
– Chairman/CEO off Singer Sri Lanka. SLCBC functions under the auspices of the esteemed Ceylon
Chamber of Commerce (CCC) which handles the administrative work of the council. Our council
in Toronto works cohesively with our counterpart organization in promoting Sri Lanka in Canada
and vice versa. It has been a productive alliance and we look forward to continuing our journey
with greater momentum with the new Government of Sri Lanka (GOSL).
This congratulatory message is sent by both our councils – Canada and Sri Lanka (CSLBC/SLCBC).
We are conscious of the fact that our membership should be open minded and centrally focused
on working together to achieve success that will benefit all parties in both countries. The
opportunities that await our members is multi-faceted but attainable only with the concerted
cooperation of the diplomatic missions in both jurisdictions, line ministries, private sector
business chambers and the businesspeople themselves.
