Trade between India and Sri Lanka to grow upto $ 5b

The bilateral trade between India and Sri Lanka would continue to grow in the next years and would be worth US$ 5 billion in 2010.The FTA with India had boosted trade between the two countries. Indian exports to Sri Lanka were now valued at US$ 2.25 billion while Sri Lanka exported US$ 470 million worth of goods and services to India, said Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion Dr. Sarath Amunugama.

Minister who received a visiting delegation from the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), India's leading chamber of commerce looking at areas of investment in Sri Lanka said that Indian investors stand to benefit from provisions and avenues available to them under the Indo-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (FTA)," he said.

The Confederation of Indian Industry is a non-governmental, non-profit, industry led and industry managed organization. It was founded 112 years ago and has 7,000 members both from the private and public sector. Its members include both SMEs and MNCs and there are 90,000 indirect members of the CII. The delegation expressed their interest in investing in sectors such as steel, education, healthcare, pepper, IT and BPOs, construction and ceramics production.

The Minister also spoke of the advantages Sri Lanka offers to investors, notably a comprehensive regime of incentives existing under the BOI regime, that cover a wide range of sectors and economic activities.

Dr. Amunugama also briefed the delegation on Sri Lanka's agreement with the European Union, known as also the GSP+. This agreement provides access to Sri Lankan made products to the World's largest market, an attractive option for investors from third world countries.

Minister Amunugama informed the visiting delegation that Sri Lanka would consider favourably an Indian request for a dedicated export promotion Zone for Indian enterprises. Furthermore Sri Lanka was considering granting a special visa for investors in line with the policy of some other countries.

The 12 member delegation consisted of leading members of the CII including Shreekant Somany, Chairman and Managing Director of Somany Ceramics Limited (Mission Leader), Harish Jaggi, Executive Director, C and C Constructions (P) Limited, Maneesh Jain, Director-Business Development, Value First Messaging Pvt Ltd, S.P. Kamrah, Secretary General, Indian Vanaspati Producers Association, Vineet Kumar Kapila, Vice President - South West Asia, Coca Cola India, Rahul Kulkarni, General Manager - International Marketing, Ispat Industries Limited, Dr. G.P.C Nayar, Chairman of SCMS Group of Educational Institutions, Yogesh Sethi, Chief Executive Officer of VLCC Health Care Limited, L.H. Sharma, Vice President - Export and Technical Services, Jain Irrigation Systems Limited, V. Sourirajan, General Manager of Becton Dickinson India Pvt Limited, S. Sen, Principal Advisor - Special Projects and SAARC of the CII and G.D. Sharma Head of SAARC Desk of the CII.