News

Lee hopes Singapore-Lanka FTA can wrap up in 2017

18 Feb, 2017

The Sri Lanka-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (SLSFTA) will hopefully be completed this year, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a Facebook post today, Channel News Asia reported.

Lee expressed his hopes in a post stating he had dinner with Sri Lankan counterpart Ranil Wickremesinghe and his wife on Friday night. The latter had stopped over in Singapore on the way home from an official visit in Australia, he added.

“He invited me to visit Sri Lanka – hopefully to sign the FTA!” Lee wrote.

Minister for Trade and Industry (Industry) S Iswaran had said last July when the agreement to start talks was signed that Sri Lanka offers good potential for Singapore companies looking to tap opportunities in new markets.

He added that several companies here had already expressed their interest in areas such as urban planning, infrastructure planning and development in the tourism sector and also in certain aspects of manufacturing.

Bilateral trade between the two countries was S$2.05 billion in 2015, according to MTI, with local exports totalling S$1.9 billion that year, while Singapore’s imports totalled S$146 million. (Colombo Gazette)

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