Govt. focused on getting the private sector to invest more - Ravi

The new administration is focused on getting the private sector to invest more in Sri Lanka, explains finance minister Ravi Karunanayake.

“The last Government, they believed in spending where the private sector should have done so and as a result crowded out the private sector. Today we are changing that cause,” Karunanayake told CNBS.

India and China are Sri Lanka’s biggest import markets, count among the top three in terms of tourist inflows and provide significant share of the country’s foreign investment inflows.

“Sri Lanka needs to develop its economy using both Indian and Chinese help. We need both markets,” Shiran Fernando, lead economist at Frontier Research, told CNBC.

But China and India have not always been open to sharing influence, with both trying to leverage their “special relationship” with the island.

“The challenge is to find a balance between these two large countries and not take to one bloc,” said Nishan de Mel, executive director at Verite Research. “The pendulum is swinging but should end up in the middle.”

- CNBC

-Agencies