Sri Lanka to use foreign missions to promote trade, investment

The new government on Wednesday said it will use its diplomatic missions overseas to promote the country’s trade, investment and businesses.

Deputy Foreign Minister Harsha De Silva, addressing a forum at the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce on economic diplomacy and winning global markets, said the government headed by President Maithripala Sirisena wanted to make better use of the country’s foreign service to attract more investments, help businesses expand and create more jobs.

“This would be looked at with a lot of importance and urgency,” De Silva said.

The official said the government also wanted to ensure that its foreign offices could focus more on taking Sri Lankan business overseas and how they could create more successful export companies.

President Sirisena’s government has maintained that it aims to improve the economic growth rate of Sri Lanka to 10 percent from the present rate of 6 percent and also has many new plans to attract foreign investments into the island nation by expanding the facilities for the foreign investments. (--Xinhua)