Infrastructure: A Sri Lankan Risk
By
Gloria Cervantes
Juaquina Twidwell
BUS 133B, Marketing in Asia
Researching Foreign Risk
Professor Jeff Fadiman
7 April 2004
Infrastructure: A Sri Lanka Risk
Ten most effective questions:
1. What do you consider as the most significant economic risk in the country?
2. Why do you consider this the most significant economic risk?
3. What do you consider as the most significant environmental risk in the country?
4. Why do you consider this the most significant environmental risk?
5. What do you consider as the most significant political risk in the country?
6. Why do you consider this the most significant political risk?
7. How are foreigners treated in Sri Lanka?
8. How would you compare Sri Lanka’s infrastructure to that of the United States?
9. How would a United States company establish contacts within the Sri Lankan government to set-up a local business?
10. How difficult would it be for a small United States company to set-up a local business without established Sri Lankan contacts?
Informants:
Our first informant, Ms. Ruani Weerakoon, was born in Sri Lanka. She lived there with her parents and two siblings. She learned to appreciate the history, culture and people of her country through road trips around the island that her father would conduct during the holidays. At 12, she began traveling to different countries in Asia and Europe. This was her father’s way of teaching her about other cultures.
When she was 17, she moved to Redlands, California as a foreign exchange student. She lived in Redlands for a year before returning to Sri Lanka. When she turned 21, she wanted to move back to California. Her father would allow her to go only if she agreed to attend college. Her father was a former Sri Lankan ambassador, so he had connections in various consulates. When it came time for the informant to get her visa to go to America, her father took her to the American embassy...