“In that, based on the five pillars of economic, educational, social, infrastructure development and elimination of corruption, Sri Lanka’s next stage of, development is expected to take place", the Minister said speaking at the inauguration of the 28th CEO meeting of the Asian Trade Promotion Forum (ATPF) held at Taj Samudra hotel on Monday (24).
“As a new entrant to the lower middle income ranks, Sri Lanka’s next stage of, economic development, as envisioned by the new government is based on the, social market economic model.
"The new government’s vision is also to take advantage of the upcoming GSP plus tariff concessions, from EU and more importantly, digitizing the economy. Our new government also plans fresh trade and investment agreements with India, China, USA, Singapore, East Asia and, SAARC countries to promote trade", former Minister Bathiudeen said.
He further said "The creation of 45 economic development zones, 11 industrial and technical zones, 2 tourism zones, 23 agricultural zones, 10 fisheries development zones and 2,500 market-centred, cluster villages are some of the initiatives to achieve this.
“Such major reforms are clearly aimed at enhancing our international trade to the next level.”
The former Minister also pointed out that In October 2014, with the support of Sri Lanka Ports Authority, Export Development Board began identifying free-port development possibilities in the country." We also realize that these ports could be attached with various economic development zones proposed by the five pillar concept of our new government,” he said.
“Overall this cannot only enhance our exports even trans-shipment volumes as well.”
“The Port of Colombo has reported a 15%, year-on-year increase in its trans-shipments. The average number of containers handled per ship per hour in Colombo port is 25, closely behind Singapore which is 30. Still we believe more improvements are needed,” the former Minister added.
