Representatives of Sri Lanka’s Pharmaceutical Industry participated in the Medipharm Expo 2024 in Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam recently.
Although the pharmaceutical manufacturing in Sri Lanka is modest in scale and scope when compared with Vietnam, the quality of drugs produced in Sri Lanka is quite high and impressive adhering to international standards such as ISO, WHO and EU GMP standards maintained by the industry, said Sri Lanka Ambassador to Vietnam, A. Saj U. Mendis at the Medipharm Expo.
Ambassador Mendis said that Sri Lankan Pharma companies are eager and keen to associate, engage, form joint ventures and to export to the Vietnamese market.
He said that Vietnam has a large pharma market valued at over USD 10 billion and envisages to reach USD 16 billion within the next couple of years.
Vietnam is a rapidly developing economy, which could be described as among the fastest growing economies in the world, with a population of 100 million, Mendis said.
It is strongly expected that since Vietnam imported goods and services to the value of over USD 350 billion in 2023, the pharma companies in Sri Lanka would be able to enter the Vietnamese market as well as to have commercial engagements and joint ventures, amongst others.
Ambassador Mendis said that Sri Lanka’s pharmaceutical market is around USD 750 million, of which 85% is imported and the remaining 15% is locally produced.
The Government has allocated pharma zones in Hambantota within 200 acres to attract FDIs and joint ventures to increase domestic production of medicines and pharma with many incentives.
He called on Vietnamese companies to seriously consider investing and engaging in the pharma sector of Sri Lanka, given a number of efficacious trade agreements and FTAs with many countries in the region.
This would enable selected Vietnamese pharma companies to manufacture pharma products in Sri Lanka at a competitive cost and to market not it only in Sri Lanka but also to export to the region consisting of well over 40% of the global population, he said.
Chairman and CEO of the EDB, Dr. Kingsley Bernard said that the pharmaceutical sector has been identified as one of the most promising and emerging sectors of Sri Lanka, not only to be developed as an import substitution industry but also as an export-oriented industry which could not only earn but could save a large quantum of foreign exchange, thus mutually benefiting Sri Lanka and pharma corporates of Vietnam.
In Sri Lanka, around 25 pharmaceutical manufacturing companies are currently engaged in the manufacturing of variety of pharmaceutical products. President, Sri Lanka Pharmaceutical Manufacturers’ Association (SLPMA), Kalana Hewamallika said that the SLPMA plans to produce 40% of local market requirements by 2030. He said that at present, Sri Lanka exports medicines to Myanmar, Cambodia, Maldives, Seychelles, Japan and Philippines and Vietnam is a new market they wish to penetrate.
