Facebook icon
Twitter icon
e-mail icon

Mangala says plans to widen FTA with India

Sri Lanka's finance minister, Mangala Samaraweera told the IMF annual meeting in Washington, that the government had plans to widen its Free Trade Agreements (FTA) with India and Pakistan, as well as signing new agreements with Singapore and China. 

“Measures are being taken to boost market access through deepening and widening the current Free Trade Agreements (FTA) with India; invigorating the FTA with Pakistan; signing new economic partnership agreements with China and Singapore. This will result in preferential access to markets with over 3 billion people, which is expected to boost domestic and foreign investments going forward through leveraging the trade/investment nexus,” he was quoted by the Daily Mirror as saying. 

Stating that Sri Lanka would work with the UN And other institutions, such as the IMF, Mr Samaraweera said "Sri Lanka’s broad development strategy had focused on a three-pillared agenda i.e. democratization, reconciliation, and sustainable and equitable development with employment generation that transmits the benefits of growth across the wider society."

“Sri Lanka’s growth model would be private sector driven with exports and Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) as key pillars, supported by technological advancement and innovation. In this process, we are committed to improve human capital and skills, set up globally recognized regulatory mechanisms and investment practices, in addition to the improvement of physical infrastructure, and create the best possible enabling environment for Sri Lanka to attract more businesses, trade and investment to become a higher income country,” he said.

We need your support

Sri Lanka is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist. Tamil journalists are particularly at threat, with at least 41 media workers known to have been killed by the Sri Lankan state or its paramilitaries during and after the armed conflict.

Despite the risks, our team on the ground remain committed to providing detailed and accurate reporting of developments in the Tamil homeland, across the island and around the world, as well as providing expert analysis and insight from the Tamil point of view

We need your support in keeping our journalism going. Support our work today.

For more ways to donate visit https://donate.tamilguardian.com.