| Sri Lanka and Vietnam can boost trade with fast track measures: officials
Vietnam's ambassador to Colombo Ton Sinh Thanh told an economic forum in Colombo, held with Sri Lanka's Institute of Policy Studies, that the two countries should start work on a preferential trade agreement to reach the target. ASEAN has been speedily lowering trade barriers to help their citizens interact with each other. "The world average for trade is 50 percent. Ambassador Thanh said the two governments may also give 10 stalls to each other in international trade fairs held in each country. From 1986, Vietnam stopped its controlled and planned economy, started giving citizens and others property rights, liberalized market prices and invited investors from around the world to come to Vietnam. The country now gets about 10 billion US dollars of foreign investment one year. Truong said all agreements signed by the two countries ought to be published on the websites of their embassies in Colombo and Hanoi. "The users of these agreements are the people and the companies," he said. Top exports from Sri Lanka included knitted fabric, animal feed, rubber products, and top imports included, fibre, rubber products, plastics, iron and steel and vehicles. Vu Xuan Truong, from Vietnam's foreign ministry said such moves had proved highly successful in India, where Ambassador Thanh served earlier, with the two countries boosting trade to several billion dollars 12 months. "Trade is 180 percent of gross domestic product, making Vietnam one of the most open countries in the world," Truong said. Chandana Karunaratne, research assistant at the Institute of Policy Studies said two way trade between the two countries had risen to 113 million US dollars in 2011 from 92. Truong said Vietnam has dedicated to lowering import duties under free trade arrangements of the Association of South East Asian Nations. He said Vietnam has become one of the most open countries, with imports and exports of about 200 billion US dollars. After the East Asian crisis, it started to focus more on economic and exchange rate stability and has managed to slash poverty. Sri Lanka and Vietnam can boost trade with fast track measures: officials |
Monday, 9 April 2012
Sri Lanka and Vietnam can boost trade with fast track measures: officials
