Sees boost from neighbouring India’s booming economy:

Lanka on track for regional hub status – Nisha Biswal

US senior envoy Nisha Biswal, in her visit last week, hailed Sri Lanka’s progress towards regional hub status similar to Singapore and Dubai and acknowledged advantages of closer links with India’s fast-growing economy. In meetings with Government and Opposition leaders, business and civil society leaders, Nisha Biswal and also colleague Tom Malinowski assured that the US will be a friend and a partner to Sri Lanka.

Nisha Biswal in conversation with Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Harsha de Silva. Pic: Vipula Amerasinghe

Sri Lankan economy, parallel to its social and political lapses, have had its ups and downs, Biswal claimed that the in addition to decades of war, inefficient economic decision-making early on in the country’s modern history, and tragic natural disasters have marginalized Sri Lanka in the global economy for decades. “Your country is now primed to become the economic success story that it was always meant to be,” she added.

“We have been proud to partner with Sri Lanka over the past 60 years, during which development and humanitarian assistance has improved countless lives, livelihoods, and living conditions all across Sri Lanka,” the US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs said. Further, she said that Sri Lanka has been on a remarkable trajectory of addressing not only the internal issues that have challenged it, but interacting with the international communities to develop partnerships, she said media following discussions with Sri Lanka’s Foreign Minister.

Biswal, and Tom Malinowski Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour met Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe, Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera and officials during their visit. Biswal was seen taking part in a local cookery program on a national television channel. She expressed US’s wish to continue substantial investments in the fields of agriculture, enterprise development, education, health care, energy and natural resources, and humanitarian activities.

Malinowski, during the media briefing said that during the last few months, Sri Lanka has taken very concrete steps forward in its reform, democratization, and reconciliation agenda. Such as “the bill to establish an Office of Missing Persons, ratifying the convention on disappearances, additional land releases by the military, the President’s very important directive on arrests under the PTA, progress in work on the constitution,” most of which was foreshadowed in last year’s Human Rights Council resolution. This made Sri Lanka’s commitment to restore accountability and rule of law visible on a global scale.

The promises on progress was announced coupled with Biswal’s appraisal on Sri Lanka’s democratic progress in the last year and half that would reflect on Sri Lanka’s economic potential. “The democratic progress we’ve seen and come to expect – and the advances in reconciliation, accountable governance, and freedom of expression– have been paralleled by economic progress in tourism, shipping, manufacturing, and more,” she said addressing economic and business leaders of Sri Lanka on Sri Lanka and US economic ties.

Sri Lankan economy, parallel to its social and political lapses, have had its ups and downs, Biswal claimed that the in addition to decades of war, inefficient economic decision-making early on in the country’s modern history, and tragic natural disasters have marginalized Sri Lanka in the global economy for decades. “Your country is now primed to become the economic success story that it was always meant to be,” she added.

Due to the positive appraisals on government initiatives such as constitutional reform for justice and reconciliation, the US Assistant Secretary said that the United States will continue to partner with Sri Lanka to advance opportunities to all its nationals through economic development and by encouraging foreign investment. Further, having US firms such as Google investing in technology start-ups in Sri Lanka, the country is looking into more “broad-based economy based on innovations” as opposed to traditional methods of tourism and agriculture.

Biswal spoke of the kind of interdependency that does not play a major role in international economic debates yet important and said that “our own economic success will increasingly depend on the economic success of countries like yours,” with the world getting more and more connected due to advanced technologies, and the potential South Asia has as a region to be a major drive for economic growth has to be explored. “The region’s largest market, India, is now also the world’s fastest-growing major economy. And Sri Lanka stands to benefit from that growth – India is its largest trading partner globally, and Sri Lanka is India’s second-largest trading partner in South Asia,” she added.

Being a regional leader, overcoming periods of adversity is as important as building partnerships, said Biswal commending Sri Lanka’s decision to join the Open Government Partnership. She said that it “is a prime example of such leadership. This partnership gives the government access to the expertise of other countries striving for more transparent, accountable, responsive government, and a platform to highlight Sri Lanka’s experiences in open government reform on a global level.”

The recent action plans adopted by the two countries to increase two-way commerce and investment in the next five years, have the potential to prepare Sri Lanka to enjoy new ambitions and objectives, she said. Strengthening workers’ rights and promoting environmentally friendly manufacturing has a goal of increasing Sri Lanka’s global competitiveness among growing customers, and the plans to list Sri Lanka’s trade and investment regime to global standards have already started making progress, she explained. “New markets should be developed to take advantage of Sri Lanka’s potential as a regional maritime and service hub, on par with Singapore and Dubai. After all, half of the world’s merchant fleet capacity and about 40 percent of the world’s seaborne oil passes through the two straits that bound the Indian Ocean to Sri Lanka’s east and west”.

Achieving regional and global objectives on economy and partnerships, Biswal said that already, the United States purchases nearly three billion dollars worth of Sri Lankan products annually, supporting thousands of jobs, providing livelihoods. “We are your best customer,” Biswal said.

(Based on speeches made during her visit)