Sri Lanka reaps benefits from long term partnership with China says State Minister
Sri Lanka’s State Minister of Capital Markets Ajith Nivard Cabraal has reportedly stated that Sri Lanka has reaped benefits over the long term with strong relations with the Chinese government.
In the long-term, the government of Sri Lanka wants to further strengthen the government to government relationship between Sri Lanka and China and to build a people to people relationship between the two countries, the Daily News reported.
Cabraal has further outlined the importance of Chinese investments to the local economy and has observed that need to remove any impediments to Chinese projects.
The Chinese Central Bank has recently concluded a currency swap with the Central Bank of Sri Lanka and Cabraal was confident of future arrangements if the need arose, the state owned English newspaper has reported.
Cabraal was of the view that Chinese President Xi Jinping’s vision for the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was in ‘congruence’ with the Sri Lankan President’s vision of ‘Prosperity for the future.’
The State Minister has made this observation while speaking during a webinar on ‘Maximizing Trade Opportunities with China’ organized by the Bank of China and the Federation of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Cabraal has further noted that Chinese investment into Port and Highway infrastructure as being integral to the future growth story of the economy of Sri Lanka and that the Sri Lankan authorities will be accommodative of Chinese investments into Sri Lankan companies.
Also, Chinese payments providers are to be given access to Sri Lankan markets, he has added.
OSL take:
Sri Lanka and China enjoy strong bilateral and trade ties that continue to grow. The two countries are also exploring the signing of a free trade agreement. China is also one of Sri Lanka’s main development partners. Chinese businesses/investors could therefore explore business/investment opportunities in Sri Lanka while local businesses could look at forming partnerships/joint ventures with Chinese firms.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/20210421/Z-4 |