Kerala: Entry into India for Sri Lankan businesses

WE launched Lanka India Business Association (LIBA) and our ambition is to foster closer business relationships between Indians and Sri Lankans.

- By Santosh Menon

Our key purpose is to figure out how we can bring FDI into Sri Lanka from India and take Sri Lankan businesses into India.

Therefore, as the President of LIBA, when I received an invitation to go to an 'Invest In Kerala' summit in February, I jumped at the opportunity.

Kerala and Sri Lanka have several things in common - it looks exactly the same in many ways.

Lush greenery, coconut and paddy fields galore. But dig deeper and there are even more striking similarities - the food-hoppers, pittu, string hoppers are all common fare in the Kerala palate as it is in Sri Lanka.

Dig even deeper into trade links and you will find a place called Kochikade a little after Negombo in Sri Lanka which was named such because in the past there were kades (shops) run by people from Kochi in Kerala, in Negombo.

Given this old history I was not surprised to find a restaurant call Colombo' in the heart of Kochi city during my visit. Of course it would have been perfect if it had been called 'Negombo' given the Kochikade context.

But beyond the past into the present my intention on visiting Kerala was to assess if there is an opportunity for Sri Lankans to expand their businesses into India.

And could Kerala be that entry into India? All reminiscent of Sri Lanka Looking at the numbers for context - Kerala has a population of 33 million compared to 23 million in Sri Lanka. But the annual GDP of Kerala is $ 167 billion as compared to Sri Lanka at $ 87 billion.

The Kerala economy is growing at 6-7% per annum. And the per capita GDP in Kerala state is at $ 4,300. Similar to Sri Lanka which pre the economic crisis had similar numbers.