NCE CONDUCTED THE ANNUAL EXPORT AWARDS PRESS CONFERENCE

The National Chamber of Exporters of Sri Lanka held its press conference on 30^th August 2022 at Hotel Jetwing, Colombo 07 to recognize and felicitate sponsors and media in association with the upcoming Annual Export Awards of the Chamber. The Chamber is celebrating the Pearl Anniversary of the Exports Awards this year, completing 30 years of success, under the chosen theme “Recognizing, Inspiring and Strengthening” – a 30 years of unbroken commitment to Sri Lankan Exporters on 02^nd December 2022 at Hotel Shangri-La, Colombo.

The Annual Export Awards ceremony, organized by the NCE serves to recognize and reward Sri Lankan Exporters of products and services and also service providers to exporters, on their performance in the international market.

This prestigious event has achieved national significance as the most looked forward to event in the business calendar of Sri Lanka. The Chamber is proud to announce that this event has been conducted without any disruption for the last 29 years’ even amidst numerous challenges.

The NCE by recognizing the best performers in exports have immensely contributed towards creating a positive mindset and uplifting spirits of fellow exporters of this nation.  The Chamber last year, introduced the NCE Challenge Trophy” awarded in respect of organizations who perform ethical trading practices under Small, Medium, Large and Extra Large categories.  This year too, winners will be conferred this award as well as other sectoral awards and special awards. In ensuring the highest professional standards in the evaluation process of applications, the Chamber has implemented improvements through close monitoring and analyzing the current needs of the Global Market.

Delivering the welcome speech at the event, Mr Ravi Jayawardena, President of the NCE stated that exporters have done a great service to the country during this troublesome period with lingering issues of shortage of foreign currency, fuel and energy and many other social dilemmas. It is sensible that the country recognizes the resilience with which the exporters perform against all odds being the saving grace of the nation by bringing the much needed foreign exchange to the country. As a country, together we have to support and encourage them to do better in the future.

He further highlighted the importance of developing Sri Lanka as an export led economy. He urged the government to Resurrect the Export Council of Ministers which was started during Minister Athulathmudali’’s time. As done by the then Head of State J R Jayawardene, to share meetings with all ministers, deputy ministers and secretaries together with exporters to discuss all export related issues which can be resolved with the intervention of the relevant authorities. He said that the majority of the people were subsidizing 1.5 million of State sector employees and half of them are unproductive. Jayawardena questioned as to why not allow five years no pay leave to those government employees to find alternate employment in the private sector or to become entrepreneurs so that the burden on the government could be reduced.

He also highlighted the importance of creating employment opportunities for the younger generation within the shortest possible time and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector plays a vital role in supporting this cause.

Addressing theaudience, Mr Shiham Marikar, CEO/SG of the NCE stated that the Chamber is proud to announce the 30^th Anniversary event. This prestigious event boasts 29 years of unbroken commitment to Sri Lankan Exporters. The Chamber has been successful in conducting the event even amidst numerous challenges during the past to motivate and encourage our exporters to do well into the future. At a time when the deadly pandemic was creating havoc in the lives of people, we still encouraged our exporters and conducted the event by adhering to all health and safety protocols imposed by the government.

He further stated that the demand for this event has been increased significantly as the Chamber anticipates more than 165 applications this year for awards under various categories. This would probably be the highest recorded number of applications in the history of the NCE Export Awards.

Marikar said that applications will be evaluated by a professional panel of judges which consists of 12 members and the panel will be chaired by Dr Jagath Peiris who is a members of the panel of judges for many years and who is also a past president of the NCE.  This evaluation process also covered by a technical committee with 16 members headed by Mr Samantha Kumarasena, Chief Executive Officer of National Cleaner Production Centre. The other members of the technical committee consist members representing Export Development Board, Department of Commerce, Sri Lanka Customs, Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, Chartered Accountants-Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Institute of Marketing, Chartered Institute of Marketing, National Cleaner Production Centre, Ind-Expo Certification Limited, Control Union SL office, National Environmental Authority, Sri Lanka Standards Institution, National Science Foundation and Sri Lanka Institute of Nano-Technology.

Ernst & Young, strategic knowledge partner of the NCE is the overall facilitator and involved in all stages to give expert opinion of all aspects of the judging process. Marikar said that the Chamber staff has no involvement in application evaluation and judging process.

Marikar, in his address highlighted the important role played by strategic partners of the Chamber in supporting in all its activities. Some of the partners have been with us for more than 25 years and have become involved with this event significantly over the years.  There are also other partners who have joined hands with us recently and we warmly welcome all our partners and media – who takes our messages to a wider audience through print and digital media, he stated.

Finally, he stated that the Chamber intends to develop and sustain more exporters in the future and plans to do so regionally, firstly be connecting regional producers, growers with member exporters of the Chamber.

The members representing strategic partners of the NCE Annual Export Awards were present during the conference and all of them addressed the audience sharing their views. Among partnering organizations were Expack Corrugated Cartons Plc, Asia Securities, Commercial Bank, Hatton National Bank, Seylan Bank. Ernst & Young – Strategic Knowledge Partner and Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited – Official Print Media Partner. They stressed the importance of supporting exporters and complimented the NCE for organizing this event to motivate them. 

The  Story Behind the Trophy

The trophy awarded during this flagship event has its own story. The Trophy is cylindrical in shape with a globe carrying the world map it its apex.  The Globe depicts the International nature of export markets covering the entire world.  The Trophy also has the nature of a Light House depicting a beacon showing the path ahead for Sri Lankan exports which are so vital for the economy.  The three metal plated arrows round the globe originating from its bottom, and increasing in thickness and pointing upwards depicts growth in exports related to international markets.  They also represent the triple bottom line in respect of an enterprise comprising of Profit, People, and the Planet, which is a modern concept for the overall sustainability of an organization.   The black color of the trophy conveys ‘Authority and Power’ in terms of color psychology which is reminiscent of the real nature of exports.

Apart from the awards won by exporters, the wines are also provided a “Special Logo” which they are entitled to use for a period of 02 years from the date of winning the award, in all promotional and marketing materials, along with other important information, to highlight the winning in international markets.

Important dates associated with the event

NCE Export Awards is the premier awards ceremony and the flagship event in the Sri Lankan Business Calendar conducted by NCE specially designed to recognize and reward outstanding performance of exporters of our country. The event has achieved national recognition over the past 29 years due to its professionalism and high standards. This prestigious award is meant to enhance the visibility of the exporter in the global market and gain prominence and ease of access into various international markets. In bestowing this award, the Chamber recognizes various important aspects of a business accentuating on People, Profit and Planet. Further, special awards are given for Innovation, Value Additions and Research & Development, keeping abreast with the economic views of the Sri Lankan Government.

For more details applicants are requested to contact the Chamber through operations@nce.lk and Dilini on 0114344662.