Srilankan businessman W. A. Weeraratne is excited these days as his company will move from a one-room office to a four-room one in the same building in Shenzhen's Luohu District this weekend.

"The new office will have a showroom where we can exhibit our import and export products," he said.

Weeraratne ran a trading company in Hong Kong selling Sri Lankan products before he came to Shenzhen two years ago. During his stay in Hong Kong he visited Shenzhen many times and realized that Shenzhen might be a better place for him to do business in terms of infrastructure, location and communications.

"China is a rapidly growing country," he said. "Compared with Hong Kong, Shenzhen has two advantages. One is that it is close to Hong Kong and links to all China and the world. Second is that the cost here is much lower and I can easily find good English-speaking staff and talent here."

A year ago, Weeraratne set up his Shenzhen office in Luohu, selling tea, coconut base, rubber and minerals from Sri Lanka to China and buying industrial raw materials from China for markets in Sri Lanka. Last year, he exported more than US$1 million worth of general hardware products from China to Sri Lanka.

Weeraratne's business also covers Europe and Japan. He has three Chinese employees to help him find clients on the Internet and do some routine office work. His business trips to other mainland cities, such as Chongqing, Hangzhou, Kunming and Urumqi, have become part of his daily life and he has bigger plans for the future.

"Next year I will buy my own office and house here," he said.

(Shenzhen Daily January 8, 2008)