Impressive progress in economic partnership between India - SL [August 15 2013]

Celebrating the sixty seventh Independence day of India in Colombo, High Commissioner Y.K. Sinha hailed the vibrant and growing economic and commercial partnership between India and Sri Lanka. Speaking at the event the High Commissioner said that trade between the countries, under the India - Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement since 2000, has multiplied by as much as 8 times, crossing the milestone of US$ 5 billion in 2011- 2012. He also said India’s developmental assistance projects, based on the priorities set by the Government and the people of Sri Lanka, have made impressive progress.

He said that the second Phase of the Indian Housing Project for 43,000 housing units for the Northern and Eastern Provinces is making rapid progress and more than 13,000 houses, in various stages of construction, are expected to be completed by the end of the year. The target of completion of all 50,000 houses will be reached before the end of 2015. The Housing Project is the flagship project of India’s development assistance to Sri Lanka and is one of the largest grant assistance projects undertaken by the Government of India in any part of the world.

The High Commissioner said the exchange of high-level visits between the two countries in the recent past have imparted fresh dynamism to the ongoing dialogue and cooperation.

The High Commission of India in Colombo celebrated the sixty seventh Independence Day of India today at “India House. The High Commissioner and other officials of the High Commission also paid their respects to the memory of fallen soldiers of the Indian Peace Keeping Force in a solemn ceremony at the IPKF Memorial in Colombo.