There would be several trade positive proposals to promote exports at the 2017 budget proposals, said Deputy Minister of Policy Planning and Economic Development, Dr. Harsha De Silva.
Speaking at the breakfast meeting organised by Sri Lanka Australia New Zealand Business council (SLANZBC) the Minister said that this is being done as the government understands the need to promote exports. The Deputy Minister also said that the budget would also support the Vision 2025 and would have several links to promote it.
Asked about on the proposals to promote tourism and relax restrictions on alcohol he said that this area too would be addressed. ‘‘Though alcohol prices are very high in Maldives tourists keep going there,” he pointed out.
“The government has included some proposals in the 2017 budget that would address some of the issues faced specially in the tourism sector with regard to alcohol. After the budget people would get the chance to have a wine on Christmas and also on ‘special’ days.”
Meanwhile Australian Ambassador to Sri Lanka, Bryce Hutchesson said that the governments ‘Vision 2025’ initiative is very encouraging and if properly implemented it can take Sri Lankan economy to the next level.
Vision that would take the country towards knowledge based economy and the authorities must try to exploit Sri Lanka’s unique strategic location for this.
He said that for the vision 2025 to succeed there should be team work and the private sector too has to support it. ‘’The business community has to play a bigger role towards the success of Vision 2025.”
He said that the Australian government too is helping Sri Lanka to achieve this goal and have invested over nine million Australian dollars for several initiatives in this regard through the World Bank.Consul General New Zealand, Senaka Silva said that when New Zealand wanted to sign an FTA with China there was a lot of opposition to it and people said that that New Zealand would swell up with Chinese imports.
‘’However this did not happen and there was a surge of New Zealand exports which increased from one billion dollars to eight billion in a short span.”The Consul General said that Sri Lankans too should take a leaf from New Zealand scenario with regard to the proposed Sri Lanka China FTA.
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