A delegation from Iraqi Kurdistan visiting Colombo for the Sri Lanka Economic and Investment Summit has discussed widening trade with Sri Lanka beyond tea, the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce said.
Tea is Sri Lanka’s traditional export to Iraq. Talks covered potential in food and beverages, agriculture, food manufacturing for export, higher education and tourism, EconomyNext reported.
Chamber Chairperson Krishan Balendra said the chamber was committed to facilitating business connections and supporting investment opportunities between the two markets. The delegation invited the chamber to visit Kurdistan to explore commercial links in the region.
What was not announced
No trade figure, target, agreement or instrument was attached to any of it. The chamber’s account describes sectors “with potential” and an exchange of invitations.
That is worth stating plainly rather than dressing up: on the evidence available this is an exploratory meeting at the margins of a conference, and the test of it will be whether anything is signed. This desk notes the pattern because it recurs in Sri Lankan investment diplomacy — sectors named, enthusiasm recorded, no number given.
The relationship is older than it looks
The visit is not a first contact. The Daily FT published “Ceylon Chamber spreads wings to Iraq’s Kurdistan to bolster trade, investment, tourism opportunities” on 30 January 2020 — more than six and a half years ago. That filing is far too old to cite as a source for current events and is noted here rather than relied upon, but its date establishes that the chamber’s Kurdistan outreach has been running since at least the start of 2020.
Read against that, this week’s meeting is a resumption rather than a beginning, and the absence of a concrete deal after six years is itself part of the picture.
The summit around it
The delegation was in Colombo for the Sri Lanka Economic and Investment Summit 2026, the Ceylon Chamber’s flagship event, held on 12–13 October at the Shangri-La Colombo in its 26th consecutive year. President Anura Kumara Dissanayake inaugurated it.
Our coverage of the summit includes the Reliance Consumer Products keynote and the President’s remarks on bringing a private operator into the East Container Terminal.
Not reported
The report does not name a single member of the Kurdistan delegation, its size, or which institution it represents. It does not give the current value of Sri Lanka–Iraq trade, the share tea accounts for, or any target for the sectors discussed.
It does not say whether the chamber has accepted the invitation to visit Kurdistan, when such a visit might happen, or whether any Sri Lankan company was party to the discussions.
EconomyNext was the only verified newsroom to have reported the meeting at the time of writing.
