At the invitation of the President of the Ural Chamber of Commerce & Industry and the Ural Tourism Association, First Secretary (Commercial) Sanjeewa Bandara visited Yekaterinburg, the capital of Sverdlovsk Region of Ural Federal District with the purpose of meeting the officials of the Trade Chamber and attending the international tourism exhibition Expotravel – 2025.
Currently the Redwings Airline operates one flight in every ten days from Yekaterinburg to Mattala airport in the winter season on charter basis targeting the inward tourists to Sri Lanka. In addition, Sri Lankan skilled and semi-skilled workers are employed in the region to fill the labour shortage of the industries.

During the discussion with the officials of the Ural Chamber of Commerce, Mr Bandara highlighted the comparative advantage of apparel, processed foods (especially tea and coconut production) gemstone mining and rubber production achieved by Sri Lanka and invited to participate in the Sri Lanka Economic and Investment Summit 2025 organized by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Andrey Besedin, the President of the Ural CCI invited Sri Lanka to explore the opportunities available in medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, and IT industries of Sverdlovsk Region, which will offer a wider market access with high quality for affordable prices.
Sri Lankan delegation met Mr. Dmitriy Vaskov, Director of the Department of International Relations of the Ministry of International and Foreign Economic Relations of the Sverdlovsk Region and exchanged views on strengthening economic cooperation between Sverdlovsk Region and Sri Lanka.
In the plenary session of the Expotravel – 2025, Mr Bandara delivered a presentation on Sri Lanka's tourism industry and invited the tour operators to arrange new excursions to explore Sri Lankan wild life, cuisines, Ayurveda and festivals going beyond the oceanic experiences.
The Sverdlovsk Region is a large industrial area in Russia with mining, metallurgy and mechanical engineering industries. This Region is one of the industrial leaders of the country, which makes a tangible contribution to the gross regional production of the Russian Federation - about 3%. There are over 700 farms operating in this and 800 companies are involved in food and food-processing industries. Processing and mining industries of this region contributes by 31.7% to the gross regional production.