Features

Tropical metropolis

26 Feb 2009 by Sara Turner

Colombo is experiencing a new lease of life as an international business hub, finds Chris Pritchard.

Lost in Colombo? Not likely. The Sri Lankan capital is one of Asia’s more compact cities, and when I ask the doorman at the historic Galle Face Hotel the way to the World Trade Centre’s downtown twin towers, he points and I see my target in the distance, dominating the skyline.

Hotel cars, metered taxis and three-wheeled auto-rickshaws are the travel options available, but I decide to walk. As I take the coastal pathway to the city centre, frothy white spray smacks the ground in front of me.

Colombo is a port city and no stranger to business, having been in a perfect position for both east and west trading routes for the past 2,000 years. It is still well connected today, with direct daily flights from London with SriLankan Airlines, as well as Cathay Pacific flying daily via Hong Kong and Qatar Airways twice daily (three times on Fridays) via its Doha hub.

Sanjeev Gardiner, chairman of the Galle Face Hotel, dispels some of my preconceptions about doing business on the island. “Things work – perhaps more than visitors expect,” he says. “Pick up the phone – it works. You can use your mobile, you can use wifi. That may surprise many people.”

In fact, you can get connected as soon as you arrive at Bandaranaike International airport, while other wifi hotspots include the Hilton Colombo, various shopping malls and Pizza Hut and Délifrance outlets in the city.

Gardiner says: “Decision-makers speak English and there are sophisticated industries – garments and porcelain are two examples.”

Among the country’s leading blue-chip publicly listed companies are John Keells Holdings (Sri Lanka’s largest business group), Aitken Spence, and Hayleys. All three have diverse interests in tourism, hotels, property development, manufacturing, transport, financial services and IT, and Hayleys is particularly strong in garment production. Despite English-sounding names, which remain unchanged since colonial times, all three are proudly Sri Lankan.

The city is also proudly multicultural. Greater Colombo is home to about two million of Sri Lanka’s 20 million people. Roughly three-quarters of these are Sinhalese and about a fifth are Tamils (although some Tamil sources put this figure higher). The Sinhalese are mostly Buddhists, while the Tamils are overwhelmingly Hindu. Significant minorities are Muslim and Christian.

Peaceful Colombo seems a world away from the war that so often pushes the country on to the newspaper pages. Hostilities are, with very occasional exceptions, confined to the north and north-east of the island. This, and the fact that visitors haven’t been targeted, explains why tourism, although dented, hasn’t withered (this is also partly because prices have risen at a slower rate than in many other countries).

Despite incidents last month, Colombo’s expatriates say that the war rarely affects the city and its daily life, and judging by the crowds of fashionable Sri Lankans strolling through the stylish shopping malls, I would have to agree. Urban life, beach resorts, ancient ruins and the “tea country” are largely unaffected, and roads into the hinterland are mainly peaceful.

The violence erupted in 1983, and dates back to the Tamil minority’s struggle for a separate homeland. Some historians trace the conflict as far back as when British colonial rule ended with independence in 1948. This argument contends that colonial officials favoured Tamils for top jobs but after independence the dominant Sinhalese applied reverse discrimination and the Tamils reacted by campaigning for a separate state.

A guerrilla war spearheaded by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the so-called Tamil Tigers, has been ongoing for more than a quarter of a century. Despite February’s headlines, the government is thought to have gained the upper hand recently, pushing the rebels into the jungle in the far north of the country.

Near the World Trade Centre, I turn right at downtown’s edge. With its tree-lined boulevards, the city oozes charm and I find myself on York Street, where a few of the shops and offices reveal the ornate colonial style left over from British rule. Visitors should also savour the grand Italianate exterior of the National Museum, supreme among Colombo’s historic edifices.

The capital is very safe for daylight walking and no one gives me a second glance as I make my way through the centre. Crime levels are low, but as in many of the world’s capitals a solo amble along dark, empty streets wouldn’t be wise.

Colombo remains a good place to do business, say Australians James and Gabrielle Whight, who fell in love with the country on a visit 13 years ago and stayed. Their business interests are diverse and they roll with the punches. “This country has its ups and downs,” James Whight admits. “But we love it and it’s a wonderful place to raise our daughter.”

So what is it like for business travellers? “Five-star hotels at three-star prices – that’s the situation here,” he says. “Prices are very low but service standards are high. [In today’s global economy], that makes it even more attractive to do business in Colombo.”

The Whights have their own company, Whight and Co Luxury Merchants, and are a few months from harvesting their first coffee crop. Coffee, on an island formerly called Ceylon, where tea bushes spill down the hillsides? Yes indeed – coffee thrives in the same geographic conditions as tea but Sri Lanka’s coffee plantations were wiped out by leaf rust in 1869, subsequently to be replaced by tea.

The Whights’ coffee will be packaged and exported to destinations around the world, including the UK, under their Ruby Harvest label – keep an eye on those supermarket shelves.

The three “T”s of tea, tourism and textiles remain Sri Lanka’s economic stalwarts. The last of these is the least known but more than 400 factories produce garments for some of the world’s top designer brands and fashion labels. Low wages attract investors and low prices attract foreign buyers.

A vendor with an armload of garments shoves a pair of trousers in my face. I quite like them and the asking price is a paltry 300 rupees (£1.80). I’m expected to haggle and manage to lower the sum to 250 rupees (£1.50), but then I notice a small hole on the right knee. “Sorry,” I say, walking away. The hawker is unfazed. “Take these trousers to your country and wash them with detergent. You will see – the hole will disappear. Trust me,” he says.

Shortly after this I reach my destination – the air-conditioned offices at the World Trade Centre, where young, overseas-educated stockbrokers tell me that a decade ago Sri Lanka was poised to become the Indian subcontinent’s economic powerhouse, using Singapore as a role model. At the time, this view was echoed by shrewd analysts at the Colombo Stock Exchange, but such optimistic predictions haven’t yet proved accurate.

For business travellers, the informal tropical metropolis places great emphasis on good food and after-hours fun, but don’t be too relaxed – while men needn’t wear jackets to most meetings, a crisp white shirt, preferably with a tie, is de rigueur. Women should dress conservatively, while colourfully, in lightweight fabrics, following the lead of Sri Lanka’s multitudinous female executives. Punctuality is increasingly a business attribute here.

Outside the city, the pace of life slows down and while distances are short, travel is pleasurably slow as cars crawl through villages. Sri Lanka is a small island – it’s only 65,610 sq km – which Trans Asia hotel’s general manager, Neroy Marso, cites as a big plus for anyone able to combine a business trip with a holiday, since beach resorts, the tea-growing zone and wildlife are close at hand.

Hiran Cooray, managing director of Jetwing, a major local hotel chain that owns resorts such as Vil Uyana in Sigiriya, agrees. “Many business visitors add on leisure time and ask a partner to join them before or after they take care of business,” he says.

Before leaving Sri Lanka, I spend a day driving through dramatic countryside on the outskirts of Colombo with one of the country’s most prominent environmentalists and wildlife photographers, Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne, who returned to the country five years ago after living in the UK. He says: “Sri Lanka is a nation of tremendous unfulfilled potential. It has one of the highest diversities of wildlife species anywhere in the world. It even has large iconic mammals such as leopards and elephants, which are usually not found on small islands.”

He adds: “Sri Lanka’s landscape varies from sandy beaches to forested cloud-covered mountains. Plus we have magnificent archaeological ruins that are more than 2,000 years old.”

De Silva Wijeyeratne is optimistic about the potential for tourism to grow still further. “The outlook for the business sector is justifiably good,” he says. “Sri Lanka has turned the corner.”

Take some time out

Business may be the main reason for visiting Colombo but it’s worth adding a couple of days to your trip to see more. Options include Negombo’s beach resorts, Unawatuna’s surfing, Galle’s history, Kandy’s culture, Nuwara Eliya’s colonial hill-station charm, Pinnawela’s elephant orphanage (great for children), wildlife parks such as Yala, inland tea plantations, the ancient-city “cultural triangle” of Anuradhapura, Polonnaruwa and Dambulla, and Sigiriya.

SIGIRIYA

Stairways of stone and steel lead to the top of Sigiriya (lion’s rock), one of Asia’s most visited World Heritage sites. The main attraction is a series of 1,500-year-old frescoes of bare-breasted maidens in caves partway up. Open Mon-Thurs 9am-8pm, Fri 9am-7pm, Sat 9am-4pm and Sun 10am-4pm. The best place to stay is the nearby Vil Uyana, an upscale boutique property run by the local Jetwing chain.

ODEL

This department store sells “over-runs” from Sri Lanka’s garment industry as well as items rejected owing to all-but-imperceptible imperfections, at cheaper-than-Bangkok prices.

  • 5 Alexandra Place; tel +94 11 268 2712; odel.lk

THE LAVENDER HOUSE

Three hours away, in the heart of hilly tea country, the Lavender House is a five-star, five-bedroom hotel. It was a former planter’s residence built in the 1890s and is crammed with art and antiques. Optional excursions include visits to tea factories and ancient ruins, elephant-watching and golf.

CRICKET CLUB CAFE

This villa, transformed into Colombo’s hottest bar, is filled with cricket-themed memorabilia. It’s both the hangout of touring teams and their fans and an informal favourite of the local expat community and the Sri Lankan elite. Food, more Western than Sri Lankan, is good – particularly the tasty fish and chips which, with two beers, costs 1,200 rupees/£7.30. Open daily 11am-11pm.

COCKTAILS AT THE GALLE FACE HOTEL

Watch the sun set over the Indian Ocean from the Verandah restaurant or the palm-fringed outdoor chessboard area beneath it. The two form Colombo’s top venue for cocktails (typically 800 rupees/£4.85 each).

Where to stay

CINNAMON GRAND

Behind its vast lobby, this 501-room refurbished five-star property has immaculate interiors with business amenities including high-speed internet. Among its many eating outlets, Tao’s east-west fusion is an elegant favourite for business entertaining. Downtown is a five-minute taxi ride away and an upscale shopping mall adjoins.

GALLE FACE HOTEL

One of Asia’s grand old hotels, the Galle Face opened in 1864 and has two restored and refurbished wings – the 65-room Classic wing and the 17-room Regency wing – both with separate entrances. Many travellers will prefer the Classic wing’s creaky, high-ceilinged charm, where former guests have included European royals and Hollywood movie stars.

HILTON COLOMBO 

This Hilton hotel is a 384-room resort in the city, boasting ocean views and linked by an internal walkway to the World Trade Centre. It has high-speed internet and other business amenities. The al fresco Curry Leaf restaurant is one of Colombo’s best venues for Sri Lankan cuisine, while the Echelon pub attracts executives from nearby office towers.

  • 2 Sir Chittampalam A Gardiner Mawatha; tel +94 11 249 2492; hilton.com

TAJ SAMUDRA

The décor is rich in Rajasthani influences at this 300-room lawn-fringed, five-star hotel perched at the edge of Galle Face Green. It’s popular among celebrities visiting Colombo and has customary corporate amenities. The Golden Dragon Chinese eatery attracts a networking crowd at lunchtime. 

TRANS ASIA 

The seven-floor Trans Asia hotel has 359 rooms and city or Beira Lake views. Rooms, comfortably furnished, have Sri Lankan design influences and high-speed internet access. The fashionable Saffron eatery serves Indian cuisine and is ideal for entertaining clients.

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