Friday, March 10, 2017

Retooling the Foreign Ministry to focus on commercial diplomacy


ft.lk
Excerpt:
Sri Lankan diaspora living in an important capital were shocked recently to see their envoy not knowing that the Ambassador/High Commissioner was the primary representative for all Sri Lankan interests in that country, and that varies from being responsible for taking care of Sri Lankan citizens and their needs to the issuance of visas, to the discussions about political and economic and trade and commerce opportunities, also the military relationships and dealing with the environment. It’s technically the whole range of things.
In addition they must also do public diplomacy, they are expected to give effective speeches at different sorts of events to make sure that people in that country are well aware of what our policies are and why we have them. But when you send people who do not know the subject, not much can be achieved. ...

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