Sri Lanka is one of Victoria’s close economic partners in the region and a market to consider as part of your South Asia engagement plan. Victoria’s Commissioner to South Asia, Michelle Wade, and the Director of Trade and Industry for South Asia, Gopi Shankar, visited Sri Lanka in May 2024 to connect with trade, investment and education stakeholders and promote Victoria in-market.

The visit also built on connections made through the first Victoria Aboriginal Economic Development mission to Sri Lanka in August 2023.

Direct flights, community connections and education support business engagements

Sri Lankan Airlines flies daily between Colombo and Melbourne, supporting business, tourism and education links and making it easy to visit for business. There is strong awareness and positive associations with Victoria through the growing Sri Lankan community in Victoria and our established education connections.

Victoria is home to the largest Sri Lankan community in Australia, and one of the largest outside Sri Lanka.

International education enrolments from Sri Lanka were Victoria’s 6^th largest source of enrolments in 2023 and enrolment numbers have now fully recovered above pre-COVID-19 enrolments. Partner institutions in Sri Lanka have experience delivering Victorian higher education and vocational qualifications across business, engineering, IT, science and hospitality. Partnerships include Chisholm TAFE and CINEC Campus in Sri Lanka, Monash University and the Universal College Lanka (UCL), Victoria University and the National School of Business Management (NSBM) and the William Angliss Institute and the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) courses through the Colombo Academy of Hospitality Management. Deakin University has also established a strong brand presence in Sri Lanka.

While goods exports from Victoria to Sri Lanka remain modest, Victoria has the largest goods export relationship and two-way goods trade relationship with Sri Lanka of all Australian states and territories, led primarily by our food and fibre exports.

Innovation connections are growing through our alumni network

Victoria’s Commissioner and Director of Trade and Industry helped showcase business and alumni experiences at our Victoria Connect networking event at Hatch, Sri Lanka’s largest incubator, in partnership with the Sri Lanka Australia Chamber of Commerce.

Meeting with the start-ups located at Hatch, highlighted the expertise Sri Lanka has in cybersecurity and agtech. Haridhu Abeygoonaratne, COO of Simcentric Technologies (B. Computer Sciences, Deakin Uni) and Anushka Weeraratne, CEO of Lanka Marine Services (MBA, Monash Uni) shared their experiences in a panel discussion. Haridhu and Anushak are featured in Victoria’s 2024 South Asian Leaders of Industry Calendar.

Regional cooperation supports economic engagement

Victoria’s Commissioner and Director of Trade and Industry also attended the Indian Ocean Rim Association Business Conclave 2024 as part of the Australian delegation. Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) aims to foster regional economic cooperation. The conference theme was ‘Sustaining Growth – Bridging Horizons’ and included discussions on furthering cooperation across agriculture, ICT, logistics, renewable energy, SME development, tourism and women empowerment. Australia is a founding member of the (IORA).

Indian Film Festival of Melbourne brings the best of Indian and South Asian film to Melbourne and showcases local collaborations

Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM), supported by VicScreen, ran from 15 to 23 August 2024. With a diverse range of programming including feature films, short films and in-conversation events, this long-running festival is an unmissable opportunity to engage with film and stories from across the region.

This year IFFM included the ‘My Melbourne World Premier’ featuring four short films made in collaboration between Australian and acclaimed Indian film makers Onir, Imtiaz Ali, Rima Das and Kabir Khan. And, the ‘Regional Rhapsody’ included screenings in Bendigo, Geelong and Shepparton.

The IFFM streaming platform is also available for Australian-based audiences until 30 September 2024.