Where can I work?

• Major industries: agricultural products (especially tea, coconuts, tobacco), processing (including rubber, cement and petrol refining), textiles manufacture, hospitality, telecommunications and banking/insurance.
• Recent growth areas: now that the conflict in Sri Lanka has been declared officially over (although note that travel advice still recommends avoidance of certain areas), tourism is expected to rebound. Recently, the insurance sector has been growing steadily. In July 2009, the central bank raised its 2009 growth forecast for Sri Lanka to as much as 4.5% from an earlier estimate of 2.5%
• Industries in decline: the sugar and tea industries have been badly hit and the price of sugar in Sri Lanka has increased to the extent that companies producing cakes and biscuits now have to import sugar. The tea industry is also suffering. The construction industry is slow at the time of writing due to the global economic crisis. Also, clothes manufacturers are set to suffer in the near future due to strict international regulations.
• Shortage occupations: there is a large demand for IT professionals and qualified doctors in Sri Lanka.
• Major companies: Coates Viyella, Courtaulds, Motorola, AT&T, 3M, KFC, Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Marks & Spencer, Unilever, Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, Shell, P&O, Citigroup.
• Search for more companies: Kompass is a worldwide business directory searchable by country and product/service. Also see Sri Lanka Yellow Pages and Wikipedia - List of companies in Sri Lanka.
• Major cities: Sri Jayawardenepura (capital), Colombo (commercial capital), Kandy, Jaffna, Galle.