Sri Lanka, Japan to focus on strengthening economic ties

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who arrived in Japan yesterday for an official visit will have a series of meetings from today with key economic agencies working with Sri Lanka.

Further strengthening of economic ties between the two countries will become a key focus of the visit.

Prime Minister Wickremesinghe is scheduled to meet the Japan-Sri Lanka Parliamentarian’s League, the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and meet the Japanese Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hiroshige Seko.

At JETRO, the Prime Minister will deliver a speech on ‘Sri Lanka Understanding the Global Situation and Importance of Japan’. Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade Malik Samarawickrama and Minister of Special Assignments Sarath Amunugama are also scheduled to speak at the event with the former touching on the topic ‘The art of Sri Lanka for Japanese Investors’ and the latter with ‘Investment Opportunities available in Sri Lanka for Japanese Investors’.

Japan is a key economic partner and contributor of aid to Sri Lanka and according to statistics in 2015, Japan exported goods worth 141.4 billion yen to Sri Lanka while Sri Lanka exported goods worth of 32.6 billion yen to Japan.

Agencies such as JICA and JETRO have been closely involved in investments in Sri Lanka and according to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan has invested as of 2014, Rs 1.5 billion in direct investments in Sri Lanka while granting 1,035.0 billion yen (cumulative total as of fiscal 2015) in loans, 207.2 billion yen (cumulative total as of fiscal 2015) in grants and 75.3 billion yen (cumulative total as of fiscal 2015) in technical cooperation.

As Sri Lanka looks to attract more foreign direct investments into the country, Japan will be a major player on its radar. The Prime Minister’s current visit to Japan will be the government’s seventh official visit to the country since taking office in 2015.