SL-S’pore FTA to open trade to the East Asian region

The Sri Lanka and Singapore Free Trade Agreement (FTA) signed on Tuesday during a current visit by Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is part of the broader strategy of eyeing the East Asian region and plugging into Asian supply chains, which the South Asian island sees as a broader 'look east' strategy and getting into regional supply chains, top state officials say.
Malik Samarawickrama- Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade in his address at the Sri Lanka- Singapore Business forum in Colombo on Wednesday said that this FTA comes at a time when trade with Sri Lanka is growing, with bilateral trade reaching US$ 2.7 billion last year. 

“This is a lynchpin in the ongoing policy reforms,” he said. The negotiations of the Sri Lanka-Singapore Free Trade Agreement (SLSFTA) commenced in August 2016 after signing of the joint statement of Singapore and Sri Lanka, during the official visit of Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister to Singapore on 18-19 July 2016. Eight rounds of negotiations have been completed and as a result, the agreement has come to the final stage in January 2018. Singapore is also Sri Lanka's seventh-largest foreign investor. (DEC)