Indonesia-Sri Lanka Open New Cooperation Opportunity

INDUSTRY.co.id - Srilanka - Indonesia and Srilanka are committed to strengthening and opening new cooperation opportunities in various fields. This commitment emerged from the results of the state visit of the President to Sri Lanka on 24-25 January 2018. The visit was held to meet the invitation of the President of Sri Lanka delivered on the sidelines of the IORA Summit in Jakarta, March 2017.

Both countries agreed to form the Free Trade Area (FTA) gradually starting with the Trade in Goods (TiGs) negotiations that are expected to be completed within 2 years and establishing the Trade and Investment Working Group to overcome trade and investment barriers and negotiating trade agreements in parallel.

In a bilateral meeting, President Joko Widodo expressed the readiness of Indonesia to meet the demand of the Government of Sri Lanka in assisting the construction of Sri Lanka's infrastructure and connectivity. Cooperation in these two areas as well as strengthening trade cooperation with the establishment of FTA is a new opportunity that can be achieved in this visit.

Furthermore, the President of RI and the President of Sri Lanka have witnessed the signing of 3 cooperation documents, namely MoU of Search and Rescue (SAR), MoU of Higher Education Cooperation, and MoU on Drugs Relief Cooperation where capacity building cooperation becomes the main focus of cooperation in the three fields.

As a series of state visits of the President of the Republic of Indonesia to Sri Lanka, the Business Forum conducted by KADIN RI and KADIN Sri Lanka on January 24, 2018. The meeting was attended by Coordinating Minister for Economic Affairs, Director General of PPI Ministry of trade , Chairman of Kadin, Chairman of Ceylon Chamber of Commerce and 50 entrepreneurs of both countries. Business Forum is intended to strengthen the trade relations between the two countries and renew MoU cooperation between the two countries Kadin.