President to expand economic, investment, trade relations with EU

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa plans to enhance economic, investment and trade relations with the European Union(EU).

“I thank the European Union delegation in Sri Lanka for the good wishes and look forward to fostering warm and mutually beneficial relations with the Union. With the democratic mandate given, we will create an environment of confidence, certainty & predictability for economic, investment and trade to be enhanced,” he said in a twitter message, responding to a statement by the European Union yesterday.

European Union spokesperson following the 2019 Presidential Elections in Sri Lanka said in a message, “The EU looks forward to continue working with Sri Lanka on the wide range of issues covered by our partnership, from trade to cooperation in the area of foreign policy and security. We remain fully supportive of the broader reform agenda in Sri Lanka.”

“We congratulate President Rajapaksa and look forward to working with him to uphold Sri Lanka’s commitments to implement international conventions on fundamental rights and to continue efforts aimed at improving governance, human rights and reconciliation. It is crucial that Sri Lanka continues to move forward, bringing the whole country together,” the EU said in a statement.

The EU and Sri Lanka have strong and long-lasting economic, trade and investment relations and EU is Sri Lanka’s largest trading partner with 16% of total trade in 2018, before India (4.2 billion euro) and China (3.9 billion euro).

More significantly, the EU is by far Sri Lanka’s main export destination with nearly 30% of the total exports going to Europe, a value of 2.8 billion, ahead of the US with 2.4 billion euro. (CJ)