Sri Lankan government will encouraging more people to ‘Be an Export Champion.’ For this, the government will implement outward looking trade policies to create and support the next generation of entrepreneurs and exporters.
At the same time, Sri Lankan government has reiterated its commitment to protect the local entrepreneurs while taking initiatives to increase the quality of Sri Lankan made products whilst taking measures to remove all anti exports activities.
“This is the year for accelerated delivery, and we will be focusing very strongly on that. A lot of new initiatives have been taken and many more are planned for the year ahead. The last year was a landmark year for our export sector,” Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade Malik Samarawickrema told reports at a media networking session, organized by Sri Lanka Export Development yesterday.
The event was held to announce the achievements of EDB in 2018 and its action plans for 2019.
The Minister also said that country will have to make up for the lost time during the political crisis and move forward quickly. According to him, Sri Lanka lags behind in terms of country’s total export growth compared to other regional peers like Vietnam and Thailand.
“Our target for 2018 was US$ 17.4 billion that is merchandise and services exports. I think we will end up with around US$ 17 Billion, and if not for the political crisis we would have ended the year higher. Still, this performance is noteworthy considering our exports were at just US$ 13.4 billion in 2015 and has grown 27 % since. The target for this year 2019 is US$ 20 billion in merchandise and services exports, and we are confident that this can be achieved. “Minister Samarawickrema said.
He also agreed that the government needs to improve certain areas in terms of productivity, activities relating to the ease of doing business ranking simultaneously. The Minister further said that the country needs to be stable politically to bring more investors in to spur overall economic activities. In addition, the Minister said that the government is progressing with two export processing zones in Millaniya and Bingiriya. The Minister also congratulated Sri Lankan exporters for their continued achievements in the global market despite various obstacles.
“You are standing strong and growing sustainably. We need to focus on diversifying our product basket and we need to enter new markets.” he said.
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