 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
"What we hear about Sri Lanka (in Japan) is not very good. I took up my post as JETRO Resident Representative to Sri Lanka earlier this year and what I heard about the country was not very good in relation to the war.
"But only after I arrived did I see for myself that things were not as bad as what we hear from the media," Sakishge said.
He said Sri Lanka should invest in Public Relations professionals to boost the country’s low image in the eyes of the world community.
"There has to be effective PR to attract investors and there is a need for Sri Lanka to employ professionals in the field of PR to do this," Sakishge said.
Since, the war ended with defeat of the LTTE last April, Sakishge said he had seen vast improvements in the country only because he saw it for himself whereas many potential investors still depended on information from external sources especially international media.
PR... from page 1
Sakishge made these comments in Colombo when the Sri Lanka-Japan Business Cooperation Committee announced the 15th joint meeting of the Sri Lanka-Japan and Japan-Sri Lanka Business Cooperation Committees scheduled to be held in Colombo from November 18 to 20.
The joint committee meetings will coincide with a visit of a high level trade delegation from Japan.
Sakishge said he saw enough benefits to be able to convince Japanese investors to visit the island and see for themselves the potential of the country.
Sakishge’s comments echo the statement made by a senior official of Malaysian Government at the Sri Lanka Economic Summit last July.
"What we are hearing about Sri Lanka in the news is not very positive and I realize for myself what things really looked like only when I came down to Sri Lanka," Dr. K Govindan, Deputy Director of the Malaysian Economic Planning Unit, said addressing the summit.
"You need to have specialized people to communicate what is happening in the country," he told Sri Lanka.
A contentious issue is the treatment of internally displaced persons and their speedy release and restoration of normalcy in their lives.
Deputy Head of Mission of the Japanese Embassy in Colombo, Kaoru Shimazaki, who was present at the same media conference along with Sakishge, said his government was satisfied with progress made by the Sri Lankan government with regard to the IDPs.
