NCE to provide ethical trading exporter certification

Europe, Japan even the Middle East countries now ask for companies who are ethically trading and with good governance and the German government is going to pass a law telling the German companies to make sure that their supplies are abiding by human rights, Shiham Marikar, SG,CEO of NCE said addressing the annual press conference of the 30th NCE Export awards held in Colombo recently.

“Our objective is to get all our members with a certification to say that our members are ethically trading exporters. That is going to do very good to the country as well. We need to highlight in the international arena that Sri Lankan exporters are ethical trading companies. That way we can easily win over the European buyer,” he said.

The NCE Export Awards has been conducted by the National Chamber of Exporters of Sri Lanka for the past 29 years without a break and all arrangements are in place for the event to be held at Colombo Shangri La on December 2.

Marikar said the number of applications this year has increased by 60% and they expect around 170 to 200 applicants and it would be a very tough job for the panel of judges headed by Dr Jagath Peiris and his team of technical officers. He said this year they have introduced an online mechanism for applicants and straightaway they are taken care by the panel of judges and furthermore they have Ernst & Young to support and monitor the process and assist the panel of judges to ensure that transparency and high professionalism is maintained so that every award applicant is given a fair chance to win based on what they have achieved during the corresponding year.

He said one of the key things a winner gets out of this whole program is the award winning logo and they use this in all their marketing and point of sale material like packing and even in their email signatures they highlight this thing and according to them it has given them that added advantage or competitive advantage when they have discussions with their buyers to show that they were a NCE Export Award winner.

ANCL is the print media partner of NCE Export Awards.