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Ambassador Xianliang was addressing Minister of Industry and Commerce Rishad Bathiudeen during his first courtesy call on the Minister at EDB. Also present at the comprehensive discussion session were EDB Chairman and CEO Bandula Egodage as well as top officials of the Department of Commerce.
“I was in Europe for eight years and visited more than 50 countries before taking up the Lankan post. It’s my pleasure to be the new Ambassador of China in this beautiful and friendly country. I am a newcomer and I’d like to learn from you of how we can promote economic and trade cooperation further. In particular, this is a new government and you can tell us what we should do. I am willing to listen and learn from you.
“During the more than 50 years of our past relationship history, there has never been an issue between us and this bilateral relation is a model for other developing countries to partner with China. Industrial development is a strong basis to move forward in our economic relations. I urge the Chinese firms doing business here to cooperate with the Government of Sri Lanka. Promoting trade with Sri Lanka is one of the priorities of the Chinese Embassy in Colombo. You need to develop coastal cities of Sri Lanka according to the Chinese experience,” said Ambassador Xianliang
“We developed more than 30 coastal cities that lifted our trade and development. To develop Lanka-China manufacturing cooperation, we would like to build some industrial zones in Sri Lanka with direct Chinese support and partnership. If Sri Lanka is going to depend only on services and agriculture, industry sector within GDP will not develop despite its big potential. I believe that we have to develop our future trade through industrial zone partnerships which will draw more FDI from China to Sri Lanka. For example, the first Chinese economic zone of Shenzhen Special Economic Zone Model (SEZM) industrial development story and see its manufacturing strength shown today! This would be the type of partnership model we are looking at – a port city is not enough to develop Lankan industries! “We propose to set up some industrial zones in Sri Lanka with our partnership for you to reap this unrealised potential. At this moment Hambantota and the north have good infrastructure for this. We suggest you to have some loans. This form of industrial and economic zone based cooperation is one way we can develop our future bilateral relations – I am confident that this could be done. We also have to make our best efforts to finalise the China-Sri Lanka FTA, if possible before the end of this year. This can boost bilateral trade greatly,” he added.
The total trade between Sri Lanka and China which stood at $ 658.94 million in 2005 has jumped by more than five-fold to $ 3.58 billion by 2014. Imports to Sri Lanka constituted of $ 3.4 billion in 2014. In 2013, 57% of Lanka’s GDP consisted of service sector, 11% for agriculture and 32% for industry sector. As for manufacturing, almost a quarter of Lankan annual industry value addition originates from ‘food, beverages and tobacco’, 10% of it from ‘apparels and leather’ and another 10% from ‘rubber, plastics and chemical products’ sector.
“We greatly appreciate the friendly partnership offers of the Chinese government in our trade and development policies which I warmly welcome on behalf of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe,” said Minister Bathiudeen, and added: “We too are keen to boost these ties further. The EDB and Department of Commerce of Sri Lanka are at the forefront of our economic bilateral relations. Sri Lankan businesses continue to increase their engagement with China. Our export basket to China does not show the real capacity of trade on either side.
“21% of our exports to China in 2014 were apparels, the single largest industrial exports from Sri Lanka, most of the rest being agro based exports. This shows the unrealised potential of industrial exports to China that we can partner and develop.”
Raw coconut fibre (coir), apparel, tea and tobacco were Sri Lanka’s top exports to China in 2014, taking together more than 58% of Lanka’s exports. Starting as a village of 10,000 people around 30 years ago, today the Special Economic Zone Model (SEZM) of Shenzhen city alone reports GDP exceeding $ 260 billion becoming the fourth largest economic power within China.
Both Ambassador Xianliang and Minister Bathiudeen also discussed other matters of bilateral cooperation at the 18 March meeting in Colombo.
