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President Thilak Godamanna
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Deputy Minister Eran Wickremeratne
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The National Chamber of Commerce (NCCSL) has taken considerable initiatives in drawing up the CEPA (Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement) and ETCA (Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement) agreements between Sri Lanka and India, National Chamber of Commerce President Thilak Godamanna said.
Speaking at the 57th Annual General Meeting of National Chamber of Commerce on Wednesday he said the Indo-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement signed on December 28,1998 will be part and parcel of ETCA which will be signed soon.
"The efforts taken by the Finance Minister Ravi Karuananyake is commendable in resolving business related problems faced by the business community at large," he said.
Godamanna said the National Chamber of Commerce with an initiative of developing SMEs, hosted a large number of foreign delegations, signed many MOUs with foreign institutions and hosted the Ayuveda Expo 2015.
"The global oil price reduction may have a positive impact on our economy. However, there is a necessity in competing with neighbouring countries like Myanmar, Vietnam, Bangladesh, India to attract FDIs in to the country. Sri Lanka has experienced excessive rain in 2015 and it is predicted to face a drought this year. Therefore,I suggest that we should start rainwater harvesting,in order to carry out the process efficiently.
"The government should financially help house owners by providing at least 59 percent of the capital for the efforts and encourage the private sector by offering soft loans which was a procedure adopted by the Queensland government in 2007, which proved to be a success," Godamanna said.
He emphasized that anti-dumping regulations are not implemented by the Sri Lankan government.
The result of such regulations not being implemented can cause economic complications within the country's economy which cannot be recovered easily.
Additionally, preferential safeguard measures should be implemented to protect Sri Lankan investors and trade in services since Indian companies entering the Sri Lankan economy have the advantage of economies of scale.
Enterprise Development Deputy Minister Eran Wickremeratne, acknowledged the initiatives suggested by the President of the National Chamber of Commerce.
"There is a necessity in enhancing FTAs like CEPA and ETCA between India and Sri Lanka, since, our country's future is linked to the future of our neighbours. Sri Lanka had a per capita income ahead of Korea 60 to70 years back but now it is amongst the latter bit in the Asian league in terms of per capita income.
"As a whole, FDIs need to flow in to the country, land reforms and anti dumping regulations should be should our country's next initiative to bring in further improvement to our economy," Wickremeratne said.
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