Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister pushes steps to boost country’s foreign exchange earnings
Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa is engaged in aggressively pushing methods to increase the country’s foreign exchange earnings and has recently instructed officials to identify problems faced by the country’s export and foreign employment sectors and to take the necessary steps to address the issues.
The Minister has pointed out that immediate solutions faced by the exports and foreign employment sectors were necessary to strengthen the country’s foreign exchange earnings, which in turn would support the country’s overall growth.
Rajapaksa made these observations during a meeting to review the progress made on foreign exchange earnings through exports and services during the first eight months of the year.
The Minister has outlined that Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa wanted to lead the country towards a manufacturing economy making it important to take the necessary steps to prioritize it.
The meeting was attended by Ministers, Secretaries to Ministries and a number of government officials.
The meeting had also reviewed the targets achieved in the export of textiles and apparel, tea, rubber and rubber products, coconut and coconut-based products, electronics and electrical products, other export crops, gems and jewellery and seafood.
According to the progress review, it has been revealed that the average monthly income from merchandise exports is US$ 840 million, and in the first eight months, it has increased to US$ 986 million.
Export earnings have recorded a growth of 24% to US$ 7.9 billion in the first eight months when compared with the corresponding period of last year.
The discussion had also focused on the issues faced by the respective sectors and solutions required to overcome the obstacles to achieve the optimal results by the end of the year.
OSL take:
The government of Sri Lanka is looking at attracting foreign investments to the country as part of its programme to become a business hub in the South Asian region. Sri Lanka’s geographical positioning in the Indian ocean and the strong trade ties as well as the ease of doing business environment in the country have helped boost the country’s attraction as a business/investment destination in the region. Sri Lanka has also been placed prominently placed in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Given all these facts, Sri Lanka poses an ideal destination to set up base to engage with other countries in the region as well as to form partnerships and joint ventures with local businesses apart from exploring for business/investment opportunities.
| Article Code : | VBS/AT/15092021/Z_7 |