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Sri Lanka’s national single window online services commence

Sri Lanka’s national single window online services commence

The Morning: Sri Lanka’s National Single Window (NSW), a unified system meant to streamline international trade on a single platform, commenced providing online facilitation from the 1st of January 2025, Deputy Minister Harshana Suriyapperuma has said, a statement released by the Ministry of Finance on 8 January stated.
“During a recent meeting to share the progress made in this regard, Deputy Minister of Finance Harshana Suriyapperuma informed the chamber representatives that the Department of Imports and Exports Control has commenced providing the required services online from 1st January 2025,” the statement said.
As a signatory to the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Trade Facilitation Agreement (TFA), Sri Lanka has been necessitated to implement the electronic system since ratification in 2017. The Cabinet had given approval for the implementation of the system in 2022.
When Sri Lanka signed the TFA in 2017 it had 29% of the required implementation on trade facilitation under the TFA completed. However, six years later, Sri Lanka only progressed by 2.5% to 31.5% of the implementations in 2023.
In 2024, Sri Lanka’s progress stood at 37.4%, trailing the least developed countries (LDCs): Lao People’s Democratic Republic with 49.6% of total implementation and the Solomon Islands with 42.4%.
Sri Lanka’s progress on the implementation of the WTO’s TFA this year sits at 58%, as NSW supports the TFA’s commitments to trade in areas concerning transparency, efficiency, and predictability in trade processes.
Higher WTO performance is attractive to international businesses looking for efficient and reliable trade partners, or potential locations for investments.

OSL take:
Sri Lanka’s ongoing economic expansion in-line with the target of achieving hub status in the South Asian region have resulted in the overall expansion in the digital industry. With the country’s trade with foreign countries on the expansion path with the many trade agreements as well as trade concessions enjoyed with many foreign countries and the move to further expand ties to include more countries into the list of Sri Lanka’s trade partners, there are many business/investment opportunities emerging in the trade sector. One of the key and emerging business/investment opportunities in Sri Lanka is in the expansion of ICT and digital infrastructure development sectors, especially in the facilitation of trade between Sri Lanka and many foreign countries. Given the increasing business potential in Sri Lanka and the move to transform the country into a digital economy, foreign businesses/investors could confidently explore the increasing business/investment opportunities in Sri Lanka’s ICT and digital infrastructure development sectors. Foreign businesses/investors could also look at expanding operations in Sri Lanka through partnerships or joint ventures with local businesses in the ICT and digital infrastructure sectors that have and continue to record growth and profits.

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Article Code : VBS/AT/20250115/Z_5

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