Sri Lanka, India to strengthen connectivity by sea, air, digital, tech areas

by Zulfick Farzan 03-11-2023 | 9:59 AM

COLOMBO (News 1st); Sri Lanka and India have discussed joint initiatives in the economic and commercial sphere, during a meeting between visiting Indian Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Thursday (2).

Sitharaman had highlighted that the ‘Vision document on Economic Partnership’ adopted during Wickremesinghe's visit to India in July 2023 will further strengthen the countries’ maritime, air, digital, energy and people-to-people connectivity.

The Finance Minister also thanked President Wickremesinghe for inviting her as a Guest of Honour at the 200th Anniversary celebrations of the arrival of Indian Origin Tamils to Sri Lanka and complimented him for the excellent organization of the event.

The President of Sri Lanka acknowledged the multi-faceted support provided to Sri Lanka by India during the economic crisis.

According to the Indian Finance Ministry, the Sri Lankan President had emphasized Sri Lanka’s vision to build a new market economy with a focus on tourism, sustainability, agricultural modernization and digitization and welcomed collaboration with India in these areas.

The Indian Finance Minister offered that India could become the lead partner in the initiative through technical collaboration.

The Union Finance Minister also expressed satisfaction on the progress made in recent negotiations on the Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement and UPI based digital payments and shared her views on investment-based support and the Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT).

They also had discussions on cooperation in Inter-grid connectivity, aviation, power projects, and oil exploration in Mannar.

The Indian Finance Minister also noted that India would continue to collaborate with the Sri Lankan Government on matters pertaining to debt restructuring,

In continuation of the tradition of friendly relations between India and Sri Lanka, the Finance Minister and President Ranil Wickremesinghe witnessed the exchange of Letter of Exchange and Acceptance on Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for promotion of Buddhism ties between India and Sri Lanka.

The Union Finance Minister and the President also witnessed the exchange of a Memorandum of Understanding on Solar electrification of religious places in Sri Lanka.

For this project, India will allocate INR 82.40 crore out of the GOI grant assistance of INR 107.47 crore earmarked for the promotion of Buddhist ties.