The UK Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy for Sri Lanka, Lord Hannett of Everton, is visiting Colombo from 25th-28th May. This is his first visit to Sri Lanka since he was appointed in January 2025.
Lord Hannett will meet with the Minister of Trade, Commerce, Food Security and Cooperative Development Hon. Wasantha Samarasinghe, Deputy Minister for Industry and Entrepreneurship Hon. Chathuranaga Abeysinghe and representatives from Sri Lanka’s Export Development Board to discuss Sri Lanka’s trade and investment landscape, opportunities for and challenges faced by UK companies, and plans on reforms and improving ease of doing business to support the shared economic growth of both countries.
Lord Hannett will be engaging with wide-ranging representation from across the business community. This will include senior UK and Sri Lankan business personalities, UK transnational education providers, women business leaders, members of the committee of the Council for Business with Britain, and visits to UK companies in the market namely London Stock Exchange Group, De La Rue, HSBC, and the Haleon factory. He will also be visiting the MAS Silueta factory. In partnership with the International Trade Centre and Sri Lanka’s Export Development Board, Lord Hannett will be launching the SheTrades webpage on the EDB website. This is a follow up to the launch of the SheTrades Sri Lanka Hub in March this year.
Lord Hannett shared the following thoughts ahead of his visit:
“I’m excited to be visiting Colombo for the first time in my capacity as
the UK’s Trade Envoy to Sri Lanka. I look forward to insightful
conversations with the Government and the business community
about strengthening the UK-SL trade relationship. It will also be great
to witness first-hand the operations of some of the UK companies in
the market.
Having recently met some of the beneficiaries of UK-funded
programmes supporting Sri Lankan exports to the UK, it will be a
great privilege to co-launch the SheTrades webpage, alongside Sri
Lanka’s Export Development Board, a resource which will be a great
support to women-led businesses in Sri Lanka looking to access
international markets.
The strength of the UK-Sri Lanka educational partnerships is
particularly impressive with Sri Lanka being the second largest
market for UK transnational education. I look forward to my
discussion with education providers to explore how we can continue
to contribute to the growth of Sri Lanka’s skilled workforce.
The UK government is committed to supporting UK companies, both
first-time exporters to the region and also companies looking to grow
their existing business with Sri Lanka. Through my engagements, I
hope to explore ways of strengthening the UK-Sri Lanka trade
relationship to enhance economic growth in both our countries.
The UK is keen to see Sri Lanka reduce market access barriers and improve ease of doing business and enhance transparency which will further boost the UK – Sri Lanka trade and investment relationship. Sri Lanka is a valuable trading partner for the UK, with bilateral trade worth approximately £1.6bn. The trade balance is skewed in Sri Lanka’s favour with the UK as Sri Lanka’s second largest export market.