{"id":134838,"date":"2023-06-07T16:37:27","date_gmt":"2023-06-07T23:37:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=134838"},"modified":"2023-06-07T16:37:27","modified_gmt":"2023-06-07T23:37:27","slug":"sri-lanka-eyes-free-trade-pact-with-thailand-by-march-2024-as-growth-in-focus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2023\/06\/07\/sri-lanka-eyes-free-trade-pact-with-thailand-by-march-2024-as-growth-in-focus\/","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lanka eyes free trade pact with Thailand by March 2024 as growth in focus"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy Borneo Bulletin<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>CNA \u2013 Sri Lanka and Thailand could sign a free trade agreement (FTA) by March 2024, a top official of the Indian Ocean nation told media yesterday, as it attempts to rebuild its crisis-stricken economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The two nations restarted deal negotiations in January, months after a severe financial crisis engulfed Sri Lanka, as its foreign exchange reserves fell to a record low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Both sides are enthusiastic and there is strong political will,\u201d Sri Lanka\u2019s chief FTA negotiator KJ Weerasinghe told media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There will be several more rounds of talks, but I am confident we can conclude the agreement for signature by March 2024.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A Thai delegation is expected to visit Colombo from June 26 to 28 for the next round of talks, covering goods, customs cooperation, investment, dispute settlement and services, he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Two-way trade was about USD460 million in 2021, Sri Lankan central bank data shows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sri Lanka exports mainly tea and precious stones to Thailand, from which it imports electronic equipment, food, rubber, plastics and pharmaceuticals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last week President Ranil Wickremesinghe said Sri Lanka would focus on boosting foreign investment, exports and jobs, as it shifts gears from tackling the crisis to growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Economic prospects have benefited from moderating inflation, a stronger currency and lower interest rates in recent months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The IMF expects Sri Lanka\u2019s economy to shrink by about three per cent this year after a contraction of 7.8 per cent in 2022. The government expects to return to growth next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The island also expects FDI inflows to rise by a fifth this year, to USD1.3 billion, as it takes steps to attract investment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy Borneo Bulletin CNA \u2013 Sri Lanka and Thailand could sign a free trade agreement (FTA) by March 2024, a top official of the Indian Ocean nation told media yesterday, as it attempts to rebuild its crisis-stricken economy. The two nations restarted deal negotiations in January, months after a severe financial crisis engulfed Sri Lanka, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134838\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}