India will take several meaningful steps to narrow the trade gap between the two countries, said Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs of the Republic of India Nirmala Sitharaman, who was the guest of Honour at the opening day of the Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2020 yesterday.
Sitharaman said that the trade balance is strongly in favour of India and they are currently addressing this to create a better mix between the two nations.
She said that the recent budget has proposed many incentives for FDI and the government of India will also promote more Indian investment to Sri Lanka.
India has provided over USD 3.5 billion worth of infrastructure projects to Sri Lanka and currently over USD 100 million projects are in progress. In addition the India Reserve Bank of India also was involved with a currency swap with Sri Lanka which will also lead to more economic activity between the two countries.
She said the Chennai Jaffna air service will also resume when the COVID-19 pandemic settles down and the resumption of the Ferry Service too is strongly on the cards.
The Indian Finance Minister said that Indian government took every measure firstly to safeguard the lives of the people from the COVID-19 pandemic and secondly keep the economy running. “We provide several relief measures to SME and industrialists though state and private banks and also provided other benefit to the banking sector to create a ‘right balance’”
She also said that under the instructions of Prime Minister Narendra Modi new industries were created and today India is the second largest manufacturer of PPE products and ventilators used for the treatment of COVID-19 pandemic to the world. “India has also undertaken the manufacture of the COVID vaccine in India,” she said
