USA is an important trading partner for Sri Lanka with exports to America reaching USD 3.08 billion and USD 645.39 million imports coming into the country in 2018 from the US, Asanka Rathnayake President, Sri Lanka USA Business Council told its third AGM on Tuesday.
He said that Sri Lanka was going through a challenging time, and they had observed policy reforms taking place for transparency, better governance, setting the right policies to attract investment and creating an environment of ease of doing business.
In this backdrop the business community too has a greater responsibility to maximize from the current opportunities ahead of them and turn them to revenue and employment generating economic activities. “To support these efforts, we would like to play a role of a catalyst. I together with my committee will align our activities with the objectives of the US Embassy, USAID and the Board of Investment in Sri Lanka to promote trade and investments from the USA to Sri Lanka,” he said. Rathnayake said they were looking forward in working closely with the US Embassy in executing their plans. “Further, we will also work closely with the Exports Developments Board of Sri Lanka and the Sri Lankan Embassy in Washington D. C. to enhance exports from Sri Lanka to the US.”
Rathnayake added that there were many benefits that Sri Lanka could achieve from world class US companies, may it be in terms of advanced technology or world class engineering solutions or business practices and so on.
“Let us work towards creating the necessary platform and infrastructure to attract such US companies to set up operations here in Sri Lanka to reap the benefit as a nation at large,” he said.
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