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Sunday Dec 22, 2024
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President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Thursday announced his intent to transform the existing Indo-Lanka Free Trade pact into a comprehensive economic and technological partnership agreement, a development which was not aggressively pursued during the tenure of his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
“The future relations of India with Sri Lanka will be determined by trade integration. Trade integration gives a common economic base which is a prerequisite for a better national security and better political relations,” the President told a banquet to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the independence of India organised by the Sri Lanka India Society at the Taj Samudra.
In this connection, he said the Government will revive and upgrade the Free Trade Agreement into a comprehensive economic and technological partnership.
“We started that in 2018 and 2019. Then I found recently that it has been stuck somewhere in the Department of Commerce with a large number of committees. I didn’t know why it was necessary. At that time, I asked the then minister Malik Samarawickrama to negotiate it, and we didn’t have very many things. So I abolished all the committees and said, I want to see this done quickly at the highest political level,” Wickremesinghe said at the ceremony at which Indian High Commissioner and Patron of Sri Lanka India Society Gopal Baglay was the guest of honour.
Noting that many religions have more than one paradise, the President opined that Indian and Sri Lankan economies have two paradises, one is barriers to investment, other are non-tariff barriers to trade. “Both countries have to gradually wean ourselves out of it. Especially in Sri Lanka India economic relations.
“We are working for it because in this age, we do see integration taking place in South-East Asia and East Asia. When they are getting together, what do we do in South Asia?” queried the President during his address at the Sri Lanka India Society forum.
“At least our view is that India and neighbouring countries Nepal, Sri Lanka Bangladesh should integrate. We look forward to that. We look forward to trade integration in many areas with the RCEP with the EU, but the cornerstone of this is to achieve trade integration with India.”
He stressed that there is scope for Sri Lanka and India to get together and look at different areas including logistics, renewable energy, tourism, trade, and IT.
“There are many, many areas in which we can work together and we should work together for the benefit of our two countries,” emphasised the President. He also said the Government is looking at all the projects which India and Sri Lanka had agreed to, but unfortunately got delayed at the Sri Lankan end. Another move is to let the Indian rupee be used in Sri Lanka as a means to woo Indian tourists, who are the biggest visitors to Sri Lanka.
Wickremesinghe revealed that President’s Chief of Staff Sagala Ratnayake has been tasked to see the fruition of these initiatives.
President also spoke of cooperation for long-term energy security. He said the power grid connection between India and Sri Lanka, offshore wind energy, solar power plant at Sampur and the renewable energy projects on three islands of Jaffna will help strengthen cooperation.
“We have a tremendous scope of potential renewable energy, and India has stepped in first. There will be others. But from Puttalam to Mullativu, if we harness renewable energy and go in for green hydrogen and also provide power to India, you will see the upliftment of the Northern economy, which had not happened earlier,” Wickremesinghe pointed out.
The other area is promoting Indian higher education institutes to come into Sri Lanka, especially in Jaffna.
The reference to Trincomalee development was also made by the President during his address. He said the Trincomalee tank farm development, the development of the upper tank farm, the development of the Trincomalee Port and the investment zones are being pursued. He revealed that Malaysia’s Surbana Jurong has given Sri Lanka the plan for the layout of the Trincomalee areas. “So this gives big potential. The potential is such that you will find, as far as North is concerned, on its western side will be renewable energy and its eastern side a port. So that will contribute to the development of the north,” the President stressed.
He also said that Sri Lanka and India are cooperating in developing logistics because “we are one of the main ports for India and Bangladesh.” He referred to India’s Adani Group developing the West Terminal in the Colombo port.
He expressed delight over Lanka IOC agreeing to buy more filling stations from the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation.
Wickremesinghe said all these initiatives will lay the foundation for closer economic cooperation between India and Sri Lanka. “There will be new investments,” said the President, adding that he was proud that Sri Lankans too have gone out to India and cited Damro as one such example.
“We should allow Sri Lankans to go to India just as we call for Indians to come here,” Wickremesinghe added.
First Lady Senior Professor Maithree Wickremesinghe, Foreign Affairs Minister Ali Sabry, and Sri Lanka India Society President Kishore Reddy were also present along with a host of business leaders and professionals.
