Oceanpick Pvt Ltd., South Asia’s inaugural project for oceanic farming based in Trincomalee, Sri Lanka, entered into an agreement to receive import credit from Saudi Export Program of the Saudi Fund for Development on 5th March 2020, at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. The Saudi Fund for Development (SFD), established in 1975, is a 100% Government Agency which supports Saudi Exports to the world through the Saudi Export Program. The main objective of SFD is to contribute to financing development projects in developing countries by granting loans to these countries, providing grants for technical assistance to finance studies and institutional support and providing financing and guarantee for national non-crude oil exports.

Mr. Abdulmohsen Abdulrahman Al Khayal, Director General of Saudi Export Program said the SFD was pleased to be associated with Sri Lanka and hoped this association will lead to more trade between the two countries.

Oceanpick Pvt Ltd., member of the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) has established a supply arrangement with a Saudi based feed mill for their feed material requirements and have concluded an import credit arrangement with the Saudi Export Program of SFD.

“We are glad to facilitate the signing of the agreement at our premises, CCC have been continuously promoting the facilities provided by the SFD for the benefit of local companies. We organised a successful business promotion mission to Saudi Arabia in 2017 and thereafter, three knowledge sharing sessions were organised with Senior Officials attached to SFD consecutively between 2017 to 2018” said the Chief Executive Officer of the CCC, Mr. Manjula de Silva.

Former Ambassador for Sri Lanka in Saudi Arabia, Mr. Azmi Thassim highlighted the benefits that could derive due to availability of this credit facility to expand business activities of local companies and mentioned more awareness programmes will be organised in association with the CCC in the near future. Mr. Thassim extended an invitation to officials of the Saudi Export Program of SFD to organise an inbound business promotion mission to Sri Lanka.

Commenting at the occasion, Managing Director of Oceanpick, Mr. Irfan Thassim expressed delight at the significance of this milestone for Oceanpick and hoped this will encourage more entrepreneurship and investments into such “out of the box” projects in the future.

The agreement was signed by Mr. Abdulmohsen Abdulrahman Al Khayal, Director General of Saudi Export Program and Mr. Irfan Thassim, Managing Director, Oceanpick Pvt Ltd in the presence of Mr. Rizvi Zaheed, Chairman of Oceanpick Pvt Ltd., Mr. Manjula de Silva, CEO of the Ceylon Chamber, Mr. Azmi Thassim, Former Ambassador for Sri Lanka in Saudi Arabia and Mr. Theyab Mohammed Al Sharif, Counsellor of the Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Colombo and the representatives of Amana Bank which will be executing the transfer of funds between Sri Lanka and Saudi Arabia.