India treats Sri Lanka as equals in trading

The Indian government is willing to undertake a massive Information Technology and Technical Training initiative for the benefit of Sri Lankan students who are deprived of higher education due to the lack of sufficient university facilities here.

This arrangement will be finalized at a high level Indo –Sri Lanka meeting to be held in Bangalore India within the next three months.

This assurance was given this week by the visiting Indian Union Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh at a meeting with Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion Minister Dr. Sarath Amunugama, Minister Naveen Dissanayake and senior officials.

The Indian minister was quick to react when the Chairman of Sri Lanka Institute for Information Technology Professor Sam Karunaratne brought to the notice of the visiting Indian trade delegation that Sri Lanka cannot produce the required number of IT graduates without state assistance and his institution is currently producing 650 IT graduates.

Karunaratne said this could be doubled if the present course fee of Rs. 120,000 per annum is reduced to attract more students.
M.R. Rajagopal, from the Indian Centre for Development of Advanced Computing noted that Sri Lanka should produce at least 1,000 IT graduates with necessary skills to attract Indian IT companies.

Minister Ramesh said “Indian Private and Public sector educational institutions could invest in Sri Lanka to provide technical education and training in engineering, science and management.”

Accepting Ramesh’s offer, Amunugama said that his ministry would make a strenuous effort to bridge the gap between education and employability of Sri Lankan youth.

The Indian minister said that India is always assisting Sri Lanka considering both countries as equals and his country will never act like an economic giant when dealing with her South Asian neighbours.

He added that the Indian IT companies are ready to invest in Sri Lanka in a big way if the country could meet the HR requirements of at least a 1,000 IT graduates per annum.

He added that Sri Lankan investments are taking shape in India and that shows that this is a partnership of equals. Brandix Apparels is planning to invest close to $650 million over the next five to seven yeas in the Visag SEZ in India and another textile star of Sri Lanka, MAS Holdings is planning to invest around $200 million in an apparel park in Nellore district in Andra Pradesh.