Sri Lanka rubbing shoulders with the world’s best… first it was cricket… now it’s Annual Reports

Last week six Sri Lankan Annual Reports won awards at the prestigious International ARC Awards held in New York for the 22nd year. The National Savings Bank Report and the Bank of Ceylon Report won Gold Awards, the Sri Lanka Telecom Report won a Silver Award and the Commercial Bank, Hayleys and Haycarb Reports won Bronze Awards. The common factor among the six winning reports from Sri Lanka was that they were all produced by Smart Media — popularly known as The Annual Report Company. We spoke to the Chairman of Smart Media, Dr. Vijith Kannangara on this achievement. Incidentally Dr. Kannangara was invited to New York this year to serve in the Panel of Judges.

Q: Can you briefly tell us about the ARC Awards?
A: Of the many international competitions for Annual Reports, ARC Awards are considered by peers in the industry to be the largest and most highly respected. This year there were over 2,000 entries from around the world. judging is based on a marking scheme which takes into account how well the Annual Report communicates. As such, aspects such as cover design, interior design, writing, financial data, photography, illustrations and printing are considered. There is a category for on-line Annual Reports as well, The panel of judges consisted of about 25 professionals from the Annual Report industry and the financial analysts’ discipline. These were mainly from the USA but there were a few international judges like myself as well.

Q: How do Sri Lankan Reports compare with the best International Reports?
A: Sri Lankan Reports are almost there but I can’t say that they can be considered to be on par with the best international reports. On all counts including printing, Sri Lankan reports can improve. The best reports tend to come from the West. The European Continent, Scandinavia, UK and USA are very much in the lead, However, some of the best Sri Lankan Reports are no second to the best Asian Reports. This includes Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea and Japan where the best from Asia tend to come from. Sri Lankans would be happy to learn that from a South Asian point of view, Sri Lankan Reports lead the way by far.

Q: What is the message that you can give Sri Lankan printers?
A: The Sri Lankan market may in general be modest in their quality aspirations compared to the West. However, Sri Lanka may be a more discerning market than the rest of South Asia. Our printers should not become complacent owing to their leading position in terms of quality in the region. Instead, they should aspire to equal the best world standards. In the same token, there probably is a significant export market in the region for high quality printing from Sri Lanka. Our printers should explore these and look at setting up sales and marketing offices in the region.

About the Author

http://www.smart.lk/pdf/print_mag2008.pdf

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