Trade and investment facilitation upgrade seen as needed for SL

Sri Lanka should mainly focus on upgrading its trade and investment facilitation system while identifying the paramount importance of the issue, South Korean Ambassador to Sri Lanka Miyon Lee said.

The bureaucratic matters—from Customs clearance to tariff lines, licensing, and registration—should be streamlined, she said at a round table forum recently held at the Colombo Club of the Taj Samudra, Colombo. The forum was organized and conducted by the Pathfinder Foundation Sri Lanka and was presided over by its Chairman, Ambassador (Retd) Bernard Goonetilleke.

Ambassador Lee said that the Sri Lankan government and companies must focus on tourism sector development and also find businesses opportunities with Korea.

She also said that if Sri Lanka wants to attract Korean investment into Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka should highly develop its digital sector.

‘On top of that, If Sri Lankan is to sign a FTA or trade agreements, she should focus on niche markets to supply to Korean companies, she explained.

Ambassador Lee added: ‘Korea is highly digital and AI enabled and Sri Lanka needs to concentrate on that as well.

‘Further, it is going to be very important if you will be able to implement all the obligations that are laid out under a WTO agreement.

‘A single window is part of the overall trade architecture that Sri Lanka has to follow.

‘ I think that also follows with the FTA (Free Trade Agreement) negotiations. From Korea’s experience, when we had the financial crisis in 1997, we only pursued WTO negotiations. FTA negotiations came after the financial crisis.

‘The Asia-Pacific Trade Agreement (APTA) is important in this regard.

‘The APTA arrangement includes China, India, Korea, Nepal and Mongolia and 50 percent of Sri Lankan exports to South Korea benefit from the APTA.

‘But other than that, there is not much trade between the two countries. That’s why I think it is going to be very important for Sri Lanka to pursue the RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) arrangement.

‘Unfortunately, there is not much appetite for upgrading the APTA because we already have separate FTAs with India and China.

‘ We have huge investments in India and in ASEAN countries. I think it would be very important that Sri Lanka uses that kind of opportunity to see if there is any initiative for Sri Lankan companies to provide supplies to Korean companies working in other countries.’

By Hiran H Senewiratne

from The Island https://ift.tt/HB4QDEN