Srilankan businessman W. A. Weeraratne is excited these days as
his company will move from a one-room office to a four-room one in
the same building in Shenzhen's Luohu District this weekend.
"The new office will have a showroom where we can exhibit our
import and export products," he said.
Weeraratne ran a trading company in Hong Kong selling Sri Lankan
products before he came to Shenzhen two years ago. During his stay
in Hong Kong he visited Shenzhen many times and realized that
Shenzhen might be a better place for him to do business in terms of
infrastructure, location and communications.
"China is a rapidly growing country," he said. "Compared with
Hong Kong, Shenzhen has two advantages. One is that it is close to
Hong Kong and links to all China and the world. Second is that the
cost here is much lower and I can easily find good English-speaking
staff and talent here."
A year ago, Weeraratne set up his Shenzhen office in Luohu,
selling tea, coconut base, rubber and minerals from Sri Lanka to
China and buying industrial raw materials from China for markets in
Sri Lanka. Last year, he exported more than US$1 million worth of
general hardware products from China to Sri Lanka.
Weeraratne's business also covers Europe and Japan. He has three
Chinese employees to help him find clients on the Internet and do
some routine office work. His business trips to other mainland
cities, such as Chongqing, Hangzhou, Kunming and Urumqi, have
become part of his daily life and he has bigger plans for the
future.
"Next year I will buy my own office and house here," he
said.
(Shenzhen Daily January 8, 2008)
