A leading Japanese investor - President of Tosslec Co. Ltd, Kyoto, Japan Jitsuo Mikasa - reaffirmed that his company would continue to invest in Sri Lanka without any break or disruption of the company’s customer network.
Tosslec Co. Ltd’s subsidiary Tos Lanka Co. (Pvt) Ltd has been in operation in the Biyagama Export Processing Zone since 1995. Tos Lanka has created a niche market position as a supplier of ‘low volume high value’ electronic components to sophisticated markets of Japan, North America and Europe.
Mikasa who was in Colombo this week told BOI representative in an interview, as part of an expansion program, he hoped to play an important role by supplying the Set Top Box when Digital TV is introduced to Sri Lanka hopefully under the Japanese standard.
“We are also since 2016 working on an Electronics Solution for moth repellents to control the loss to Sri Lanka’s agriculture due to plethora of moths specially nocturnal moths. Our product is also targeted towards controlling the fall army moth which was a plague on Sri Lankan agriculture in the recent past. We are working closely with state institutions such as Horticultural Crop Research and Development Institute and privately owned organic farms. Already our innovative LED Lamp is being used successfully to repel moths on some organic farms concentrating on fruits and vegetables.”
He added, “we are also strengthening our efficiencies in our ongoing operations related to automotive safety harnessing and air bag assembly which we pioneered in Sri Lanka in 2002. We are also consolidating our operations in coil assemblies.”
Under his leadership Tos Lanka is committed to taking Sri Lankan electronics into its villages and hinterland. “With this in view I set up an outsource centre in Mulativu with the assistance of a Swiss NGO. Unfortunately this could not be sustained due to the reluctance of the youth in that area to work in manufacturing environment and also the logistics issues involved. We were also involved in employing several displaced youth in the Eastern Province in the aftermath of the war. My CEO Merrick Gooneratne is dedicated towards National Reconciliation and has always endeavoured to employ a multi ethnic workforce.”
“The company’s outsourcing centres at Kegalle and Mawanella are working successfully. We are now in discussion with a few Entrepreneurs in setting up outsourcecentres in other parts of Sri Lanka’s hinterland.”
Mikasa first decided to invest in Sri Lanka based on a friendship with Merrick Gooneratne who has done his Post Graduate Studies in Kyoto University, who speaks fluent Japanese and who was awarded the Emperor’s Order of the Rising Sun in 2014. Gooneratne has been Mikasa’s business partner for the past 24 years as the CEO of Tos Lanka.
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