Image issue?

Do you see whether we can take something useful from the below. Any truth in what he says to improve our world view?
Slstock



Sri Lanka's war torn image still hurting economic prospects: diplomat
July 25, 2012 (LBO) - Sri Lanka needs to improve its image overseas and promote a stable macroeconomic environment to help build bilateral trade links and attract more foreign investors, a Dutch diplomat said.
Bas Van Noordenne, Netherland's deputy head of mission in Sri Lanka told a business forum that people still associate Sri Lanka with the separatist Tamil Tigers even after three years of ending the island's bloody civil war.

"Companies are still little bit hesitant to have direct trading contacts and investment opportunities in Sri Lanka," Noordenne said.

"It takes time to change the image of the country especially if you have known Sri Lanka only by the 30 year conflict and don’t know that it ended three years ago,"

"When I tell people in Netherlands that I work in Sri Lanka, the first thing they say are Tamil Tigers."

Noordenne was speaking at a Sri Lanka – Netherlands bilateral trade seminar organized by the National Chamber of Commerce.

Sri Lanka's military crushed Tamil Tiger separatists in May 2009 ending a three decade uprising in the island's north and east.

Ethnic tensions, three armed uprisings, terror attacks, deteriorating rule of law and human rights violations had dimmed Sri Lanka's growth prospects over the years.

Trade between Sri Lankan and the island's former colonial ruler, Netherlands amounted to 280 million US dollars in 2011 with Sri Lankan exports, mostly garments, tea, rubber and fish fetching 200 million dollars.

Dutch imports to Sri Lanka were mostly food and beverages, tobacco, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and machinery.

The Netherlands had also been among top five generating markets for tourism even during the conflict, though some other countries are growing faster.

Noordenne said Dutch investors were keen in investments and trade opportunities in horticulture, agro food production, water, vessel and dredging, energy, logistics and pharmaceuticals but the island's troubled image has kept them from seizing opportunities in Sri Lanka.

"It's important that Sri Lanka goes abroad and improve its image. This is not only in relation to the Netherlands, this also relates to other countries," Noordenne said.

"I was working in Columbia and the first thing people say is dangerous country, drugs and I'm not going there

"It took about five years to develop business interest in Columbia. I think it's the same here," he said."

http://www.lbo.lk/fullstory.php?nid=1742748794

slstock wrote:
"It's important that Sri Lanka goes abroad and improve its image. This is not only in relation to the Netherlands, this also relates to other countries," Noordenne said.

[url=http://www.lbo.lk/fullstory.php?nid=1742748794

http://www.lbo.lk/fullstory.php?nid=1742748794[/quote[/url]]

This is one of the most important thing and this is seriously lacking.Only handful people in embasies do this work.

Hmmm I can see his point.

Yes it is a valid but neglected one. Since independence we have had (mainly) put faith on Russia/China lead communist alliance. We only had a brief exception during JR’s period. His vision was a very advance one but failed during the process.

Majority of Sri Lankans still have anti western attitude. This was created by local politicos and still they are putting fuel into fire whenever they can. They always like to carry anti western slogans.
So when the world watch our news/media reports they must be thinking “hmmm Sri Lanka is still a dodgy place”.

This government also should change their anti western attitude to a certain level.

In foreign affairs, no matter where we go Iran , China, Libya, Palestine, Colombia et etc, we cannt categorise western world and India as enemies ( At least by face).

That is why a acceptable solution is needed for the war torn area. Just end of terrorism does not mean that we have achieved the peace.

without concrete solution it is difficult to counter attack the Tamil diaspora because they have valid point in front of the world..

wiki wrote:That is why a acceptable solution is needed for the war torn area. Just end of terrorism does not mean that we have achieved the peace.

without concrete solution it is difficult to counter attack the Tamil diaspora because they have valid point in front of the world..

Could you kindly mention that valid point ?

Investors from western countries will not come to a country where High Court judges are threatened and attacked by Cabinet ministers and head of the state remain silent. They also will not come to a country where investors properties are at risk of expropriated by the government.. This is the reason why a country like Vietnam attracts FDI of more than 15 $ while Sri Lanka struggling to attract just 1billion $ per year as foreign investments.Vietnam terribly affected by war worse than Sri Lanka and then further deteriorated due to socialist economic polices and now standing better than us. But Sri Lanka opened the economy in 1977 and still struggling.

Whitebull wrote:

wiki wrote:That is why a acceptable solution is needed for the war torn area. Just end of terrorism does not mean that we have achieved the peace.

without concrete solution it is difficult to counter attack the Tamil diaspora because they have valid point in front of the world..

Could you kindly mention that valid point ?

It is obvious and even MR also want to do something with the LLRC and bla bla bla(IN your language).
Take out the communal minded glass and look to the reality.

Redbulls wrote:

Whitebull wrote:

wiki wrote:That is why a acceptable solution is needed for the war torn area. Just end of terrorism does not mean that we have achieved the peace.

without concrete solution it is difficult to counter attack the Tamil diaspora because they have valid point in front of the world..

Could you kindly mention that valid point ?

It is obvious and even MR also want to do something with the LLRC and bla bla bla(IN your language).
Take out the communal minded glass and look to the reality.

Ohooo.....why are you so late to reply ? Anyway cut the crap and come to the point friend as you suggested to troy

Whitebull wrote:

Redbulls wrote:

Whitebull wrote:

wiki wrote:That is why a acceptable solution is needed for the war torn area. Just end of terrorism does not mean that we have achieved the peace.

without concrete solution it is difficult to counter attack the Tamil diaspora because they have valid point in front of the world..

Could you kindly mention that valid point ?

It is obvious and even MR also want to do something with the LLRC and bla bla bla(IN your language).
Take out the communal minded glass and look to the reality.

Ohooo.....why are you so late to reply ? Anyway cut the crap and come to the point friend as you suggested to troy

That include for your comments also Rijaya.

Redbulls wrote:

Whitebull wrote:

Redbulls wrote:

Whitebull wrote:

wiki wrote:That is why a acceptable solution is needed for the war torn area. Just end of terrorism does not mean that we have achieved the peace.

without concrete solution it is difficult to counter attack the Tamil diaspora because they have valid point in front of the world..

Could you kindly mention that valid point ?

It is obvious and even MR also want to do something with the LLRC and bla bla bla(IN your language).
Take out the communal minded glass and look to the reality.

Ohooo.....why are you so late to reply ? Anyway cut the crap and come to the point friend as you suggested to troy

That include for your comments also Rijaya.

I do not want to make comments to ur dreams but I want other members to see the truth. So that I am going to make following post.


This problem is,

Created by British

Maintained by Power hungry Tamil Politicians

Worsened by LTTE Terrorists

Of course supported by Stupid Sinhala Politicians,Indian government and Some Western Countries


Military part destroyed by MR government

But other parts still maintained by Power hungry Tamil Politicians including so called diaspora.


Created by British ;- Without considering the number of people in different ethnic groups or history of the country they gave almost eaqual number of representatives to different ethnic groups in their parliament.



Maintained by Power hungry Tamil Politicians :- When people were given polling right these politicians understood that they could not maintained the power in the parliament. So that they opposed to giving polling rights to each and every person and asked for 50 : 50 representation in parliament which was totally unrealistic considering the ratio of Sinhala and tamil population in the country.(Of course some Sinhala politicians opposed to give polling right to each and every person but that was due to some other reason.) When all these unrealistic and unfair suggestions got rejected they prepared a history about north and east based on a baseless book called ‘Yaalpaanam Waippawamaalei’ which was written in Dutch era to satisfied the tamil people who were brought from south india for cinnomon cultivation.And based on that factless,baseless history they asked for almost separate area in north and east for tamils.



Worsened by LTTE Terrorists :- To force the Sri Lankan government to fulfill these unrealistic requirenments these tamil politicians formed military groups in north and east.Showing the ruthless,merciless nature Prabhakaran killed even his creators.I do not think there is any need to go in to the details of their ruthless,merciless nature.



Of course supported by Stupid Sinhala Politicians,Indian government and Some Western Countries ;-Most of the Sinhala Politicians did not understand the reality of this problem…(Still most of them do not) and they tried give solutions based on baseless hypothesis.And also there were some stupid actions taken against innocent tamil people.

Your comment should be as follows.

This problem is,

Created by British

Maintained by Power hungry Sinhala Politicians

Worsened by So called Patritic Politicians(wearing mask).

Of course supported by Stupid tamil Politicians,Indian government and Some Western Countries and those who are suppressing the human rights.

Redbulls wrote:Your comment should be as follows.

This problem is,

Created by British

Maintained by Power hungry Sinhala Politicians

Worsened by So called Patritic Politicians(wearing mask).

Of course supported by Stupid tamil Politicians,Indian government and Some Western Countries and those who are suppressing the human rights.

I do not want to argue with you as it can lead to some what unrelated discussion in an investment forum but I like other members to look in to the 1st page of following link then they can decide on ur true intention of making above comments.

http://forum.srilankaequity.com/t19866-india-to-send-back-sri-lanka-air-force-personnel

Whitebull wrote:

Redbulls wrote:Your comment should be as follows.

This problem is,

Created by British

Maintained by Power hungry Sinhala Politicians

Worsened by So called Patritic Politicians(wearing mask).

Of course supported by Stupid tamil Politicians,Indian government and Some Western Countries and those who are suppressing the human rights.

I do not want to argue with you as it can lead to some what unrelated discussion in an investment forum but I like other members to look in to the 1st page of following link then they can decide on ur true intention of making above comments.

http://forum.srilankaequity.com/t19866-india-to-send-back-sri-lanka-air-force-personnel

Nothing wrong my friend if you cannot respect others or do not want to treat as like you then leave them alone.
This is obvious and accepted eternally.

As all of us know you, in the past also you started unnecessary comments to show your patriotism and left the forum saying bye bye and on the same day registered on another name and start to show us your head strong stuborn mentality.
Keep it up my friend.

Redbulls wrote:

Whitebull wrote:

Redbulls wrote:Your comment should be as follows.

This problem is,

Created by British

Maintained by Power hungry Sinhala Politicians

Worsened by So called Patritic Politicians(wearing mask).

Of course supported by Stupid tamil Politicians,Indian government and Some Western Countries and those who are suppressing the human rights.

I do not want to argue with you as it can lead to some what unrelated discussion in an investment forum but I like other members to look in to the 1st page of following link then they can decide on ur true intention of making above comments.

http://forum.srilankaequity.com/t19866-india-to-send-back-sri-lanka-air-force-personnel

Nothing wrong my friend if you cannot respect others or do not want to treat as like you then leave them alone.
This is obvious and accepted eternally.

As all of us know you, in the past also you started unnecessary comments to show your patriotism and left the forum saying bye bye and on the same day registered on another name and start to show us your head strong stuborn mentality.
Keep it up my friend.

Oh my God....Is this the way you respect others my friend ?

Imagine this. Canada is invaded by America. Canadians fight with Americans but they lose. Americans control Canada. There's a population of French speaking people in Canada through out. When Canada was weak some act independently. Time goes. What was earlier called Canada gets independence from America. Now it's called Banana. Now there's Canadians and French in Banana. But some French people living in the north wants to create a separate state, French Ealam. They say it's their motherland. But actually every french person is also a Canadian because Banana is a new name for the old Canada.

You see Sinhalese, Ceylonese, Sri Lankan means the inhabitants of Sinhale, Ceylon, Sri Lanka. Every citizen in Sri Lanka is a Sri Lankan or a Sinhalese or a Ceylonese or 1000 other names people called this land before. There's no separate nationality called Sinhalese just as well as there's no non-Canadians in Canada other than tourists. So every Tamil or Muslim in this land is a Sinhalese. Sinhalese is another name for Sri Lankan.

Disagree?

My dear bulls,

Slstock has not started this thread for you 2 to fight.. If you 2 have a prob, take it up elsewhere not in the forum..
I respect yor views, but all views has to be in decent terms.. Pls stick to the topic discussion and dont jump out of the track..

aj,

I thought Sri Lankans represent every natinality in Sri lanka..

smallville wrote:My dear bulls,

Slstock has not started this thread for you 2 to fight.. If you 2 have a prob, take it up elsewhere not in the forum..
I respect yor views, but all views has to be in decent terms.. Pls stick to the topic discussion and dont jump out of the track..

Ok small

Anyway I do not have any personal problem with him or anyone and I do not think we are fighting ....atleast I am not....

smallville wrote:aj,

I thought Sri Lankans represent every natinality in Sri lanka..

Yes, But what's I'm saying is Sri Lankan is a synonym for Sinhalese, Ceylonese, Taprobanese, Serendibite, Seylanite. If a Russian comes to Sri Lanka and take citizenship. He's a Sri Lankan, or Ceylonese, Taprobanese, Serendibite, Seylanite. Sri Lankan and Sinhalese means the same thing.

For example there's a big population of Spanish speaking Mexicans and other South Americans in America. They are not Mexicans or anything. They are Americans. And Americans were called Columbians in the past. So those are also Columbians whether they speak spanish or english.

This is what Foreign Travelers say about Sri Lanka.
http://www.aswetravel.com/impressions-of-sri-lanka-what-you-need-to-know/

aliasjjj:

Many thanks for the post. Brings tears of joy to my eyes on a positive note. Comments to note


I really enjoyed the people in Sri Lanka, and can honestly say that they were among the friendliest people I’ve met.


There is a little bit of everything for everyone when it comes to the nature in Sri Lanka, surfers and beach bums will love the beaches, hikers will love the mountains and views, and adventurous people will love the wild life and how easy it is to find “unexplored” and “off the beaten path” areas.


We were actually very surprised, and confused, about the cost of things in Sri Lanka – compared to other countries in South and South East Asia, Sri Lanka is not cheap – you simply get less for what you pay for.


The fees to temples and cultural sites, were often surprisingly high, which put us off a little since we weren’t prepared for that.

aliasjjj wrote:This is what Foreign Travelers say about Sri Lanka.
http://www.aswetravel.com/impressions-of-sri-lanka-what-you-need-to-know/

smallville wrote:My dear bulls,

Slstock has not started this thread for you 2 to fight.. If you 2 have a prob, take it up elsewhere not in the forum..
I respect yor views, but all views has to be in decent terms.. Pls stick to the topic discussion and dont jump out of the track..

Agreed.
But completely disagree with aj's comment.
I can prove his comment is completely wrong even from Ceylon past history.

When the parliament (irrespective of the party in power) cannot resolve problems of the people, you are left with few alternatives, either fight or migrate.

After the end of war, now we have come to beginning. Initially people demand their rights democratically. Then started the war... it went on destroying everything even the LTTE.

Now it is the right time to start the journey as Sri Lankans.

If you focus on business (including investing in CES) you can’t do business with war ...... unless you are selling weapons..

Whitebull wrote:

Redbulls wrote:

Whitebull wrote:

Redbulls wrote:

Whitebull wrote:

wiki wrote:That is why a acceptable solution is needed for the war torn area. Just end of terrorism does not mean that we have achieved the peace.

without concrete solution it is difficult to counter attack the Tamil diaspora because they have valid point in front of the world..

Could you kindly mention that valid point ?

It is obvious and even MR also want to do something with the LLRC and bla bla bla(IN your language).
Take out the communal minded glass and look to the reality.

Ohooo.....why are you so late to reply ? Anyway cut the crap and come to the point friend as you suggested to troy

That include for your comments also Rijaya.

I do not want to make comments to ur dreams but I want other members to see the truth. So that I am going to make following post.


This problem is,

Created by British

Maintained by Power hungry Tamil Politicians

Worsened by LTTE Terrorists

Of course supported by Stupid Sinhala Politicians,Indian government and Some Western Countries


Military part destroyed by MR government

But other parts still maintained by Power hungry Tamil Politicians including so called diaspora.


Created by British ;- Without considering the number of people in different ethnic groups or history of the country they gave almost eaqual number of representatives to different ethnic groups in their parliament.



Maintained by Power hungry Tamil Politicians :- When people were given polling right these politicians understood that they could not maintained the power in the parliament. So that they opposed to giving polling rights to each and every person and asked for 50 : 50 representation in parliament which was totally unrealistic considering the ratio of Sinhala and tamil population in the country.(Of course some Sinhala politicians opposed to give polling right to each and every person but that was due to some other reason.) When all these unrealistic and unfair suggestions got rejected they prepared a history about north and east based on a baseless book called ‘Yaalpaanam Waippawamaalei’ which was written in Dutch era to satisfied the tamil people who were brought from south india for cinnomon cultivation.And based on that factless,baseless history they asked for almost separate area in north and east for tamils.



Worsened by LTTE Terrorists :- To force the Sri Lankan government to fulfill these unrealistic requirenments these tamil politicians formed military groups in north and east.Showing the ruthless,merciless nature Prabhakaran killed even his creators.I do not think there is any need to go in to the details of their ruthless,merciless nature.



Of course supported by Stupid Sinhala Politicians,Indian government and Some Western Countries ;-Most of the Sinhala Politicians did not understand the reality of this problem…(Still most of them do not) and they tried give solutions based on baseless hypothesis.And also there were some stupid actions taken against innocent tamil people.

slstock wrote:

We were actually very surprised, and confused, about the cost of things in Sri Lanka – compared to other countries in South and South East Asia, Sri Lanka is not cheap – you simply get less for what you pay for.


The fees to temples and cultural sites, were often surprisingly high, which put us off a little since we weren’t prepared for that.

Is this cuz of the low labour fees in SL?
I think the salaries we get are much less than what we have to pay for goods.. In some areas we're cheap like public transport but cost of food (essential items) and oil is too high..

But in other countries the salaries are taxed above 30% I heard.. ???

Small,
The issue is comparative to salaries we get in Sri Lanka the cost of food is relatively high. If you take a decent restaurant meal ( tourist level) it is rather expensive in Sri Lanka isn;t it. In thailand the hotel rooms are much cheaper with the cost of food also comparatively lesser. ( India is cheaper i heard). Sri Lanka is actually not hat cheap for tourist except for transportation and basic medical services.

Talking about food for example, if you take Carrots , when on sale in USA 1 pound can be bought for $0.33-0.5 cents . Chicken im USA when on sale can get cheap as $ 0.8 a pound. ( if you just go and buy without a sale leg quarters are about $ 1.5 a pound). In Dubai I saw the price are cheaper than Sri Lanka. Compared to what you earn in those ountries the percentage for food costs is lower.

I think compared to India , malaysia and thailand sri lanka is comparatively expensive. I might be wrong but this is my general understanding.

smallville wrote:

slstock wrote:

We were actually very surprised, and confused, about the cost of things in Sri Lanka – compared to other countries in South and South East Asia, Sri Lanka is not cheap – you simply get less for what you pay for.


The fees to temples and cultural sites, were often surprisingly high, which put us off a little since we weren’t prepared for that.

Is this cuz of the low labour fees in SL?
I think the salaries we get are much less than what we have to pay for goods.. In some areas we're cheap like public transport but cost of food (essential items) and oil is too high..

But in other countries the salaries are taxed above 30% I heard.. ???