Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe said on Friday that he is eager to upgrade the India-Myanmar free trade agreement to a comprehensive economic and technological partnership, claiming that little progress has been made in 2018 and 2019. The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and Sri Lanka was the first bilateral trade agreement between the two countries, signed in 1998 and implemented in 2000. The agreement aims to further promote economic ties between the two countries by liberalizing trade norms. The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and Sri Lanka, the first-ever bilateral trade agreement between the two countries, was signed in 1998 and implemented in 2000.

“Sri Lanka and India gradually have to get rid of investment barriers, and non-tariff trade barriers, especially those related to the economic relationship between India and Sri Lanka,” Wickremesinghe said as the Sri Lanka-India Association celebrated the 75th anniversary of India’s independence. Future India’s relations with neighbours will be determined by trade integration.

The second step, Wickremesinghe said, was to look at all the projects that India and Sri Lanka had agreed to but were delayed at the end of Sri Lanka. He said two key such projects were the grid connection between India and Sri Lanka, offshore wind and solar power plants in the eastern province of Sampur and renewable energy projects on the three northern islands of Jaffna.

We have huge renewable energy potential, and India is the first country to step in. There will be others. But from Puttlam to Mullativu, if we develop renewable energy and move into green hydrogen and power India, you will see an unprecedented uplift in the northern economy. Significant impact and implementation on the northern economy.

Then we started to push Indian higher education institutions to Sri Lanka, and Jaffna, in particular, was one area we identified and another development, he said. Significant impact and implementation on the northern economy.

Wickremesinghe mentioned the development of the Trincomalee oil depot in India. We are developing logistics as we are one of the major ports in India and Bangladesh. As a result, he said the Adani Group, together with India, took over part of the Southport West Wharf. We are developing logistics as we are one of the major ports in India and Bangladesh.

In September last year, Adani Group signed an agreement with Sri Lanka to develop and operate the strategically important Western Container Terminal at the Port of Colombo.