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| Tuesday, 28 October 2003 |
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by Shirajiv Sirimane The Minister of Enterprise Development, Industrial Policy and Investment Promotion and Constitutional Affairs Prof. G. L . Peiris said that the open sky policy mooted last week by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and Indian Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, will benefit key areas for both countries. Speaking at the Export Trade and Investment Forum last evening he said that with the open sky policy flights between the two countries would increase to 18 flights a day. The Minister said that at present, the Indian tourist arrivals are the highest and with more flights the number of Indian tourists will increase by an unprecedented number. "It will open doors in the leisure sector as never seen before." He said that the open sky policy will not only be beneficial to the tourism industry but it would have a major positive impact for exporters and the economy. "We can now finally think of boarderless trade," he said. He said that earlier the countries were concentrating on goods but today more emphasis is on services. The Minister said that Indian Entrepreneurs are happy with the development in infrastructure facilities in Sri Lanka and said that they are ready to make major investments in the future. "The exporters sector too is currently performing well and this too would be a plus point." He also disclosed plans by the Export Development Board to open office in Chennai early next year. The Minister of Trade, Commerce and Consumer Affairs, Ravi Karunanayake said that the government is very keen on signing Free Trade Agreements with many countries to develop Sri Lankan trade. "The government will finalise two FTA's between the Maldives and Bangladesh this year and will also sign FTA's with Singapore and Thailand before March 2004." The Minister said Egypt, Qatar and China have been identified as countries where new FTA's should be signed in the future and said that he was confident that the proposed FTA's between US and the European Union would be a reality soon. |
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