The Commercial Bank of Ceylon recently took more than 250 exporters, small business owners, and entrepreneurs on a virtual expedition to learn about international markets via a free webinar that explored opportunities in the export market.
Titled ‘Sailing to International Markets,’ the webinar was organised by the Bank’s trade team and was delivered via zoom in the format of an interactive session where participants were given the opportunity to raise questions which were answered by an expert panel.
The panel comprised of Mr Suresh De Mel, Chairman and Chief Executive of the Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB); Mr G. L Gnanatheva, Deputy Director of the Department of Commerce, Mr Prasad Fernando, Head of Imports of the Commercial Bank of Ceylon; Mr Mohan Fernando, Chief Manager of the Bank’s Development Credit Department; and Mr Lawrian Somanader, Chief Manager – Exports who was the moderator. The audience was made up of entrepreneurs focusing on international markets, business persons expanding and migrating to international markets, and exporters exploring foreign avenues.
The webinar dealt with topics such as developing and marketing products for export, strategies and initiatives that facilitate export, best payment methods, and Commercial Bank’s banking solutions for exporters.
To increase participant interaction, the discussions were led in Sinhala and English and the Bank enabled chat box and real-time messaging features through which questions were reviewed. Mr Asela Wijesiriwardane, Deputy General Manager – Treasury and Mr B A H S Preena, Assistant General Manager – Corporate Banking also joined the discussion during the open forum.
Recently, the Commercial Bank also partnered with the National Chamber of Exporters of Sri Lanka (NCE) to create another platform through which it can deliver financial solutions to the country’s exporters and conduct financial literacy programmes and knowledge-sharing seminars for employees of member companies of the NCE.
Sri Lanka’s first 100% carbon neutral bank, the first Sri Lankan bank to be listed among the Top 1000 Banks of the World, and the only Sri Lankan bank to be so listed for 12 years consecutively, Commercial Bank operates a network of 269 branches and 943 automated machines in Sri Lanka. Commercial Bank is the largest lender to Sri Lanka’s SME sector and is a leader in digital innovation in the country’s banking sector. The Bank’s overseas operations encompass Bangladesh, where it operates 19 outlets; Myanmar, where it has a microfinance company in Nay Pyi Taw; and the Maldives, where the Bank has a fully-fledged Tier I bank with a majority stake.
