Economists say India should use a “window of opportunity” with Sri Lanka to finalize a “stronger” FTA.

Economist Razeen Sally served as an adviser to former Sri Lanka President and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. |Photo source: Raghunathan SR

Economist Razeen Sally soon after Prime Minister Narendra Modi plans to serve as an adviser to Ranil Wickremesinghe, the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, in 2015-17, calling on India to use a “window of opportunity now” to finalize the “strong” Bilital Free Trade (FTA) (FTA), who visited Sri Lanka in 2015-17.

In an interview Hindu On Tuesday night, the 60-year-old academician said while serving at the London School of Economics (LSE) and the National University of Singapore (NUS) that the current National People’s Power (NPP) government led by Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna has “sympathy for India, but much less defensive to India.” [those of the governments led by] Rajapaxas. “In addition, the public opinion atmosphere that favors India has changed due to what the country has done during the 2022 economic crisis in Sri Lanka.

Close contact

The proposed FTA could “cover services; allow some workers to move freely and overcome the protectionist barriers in both countries – and I think there is more to this in Sri Lanka.” The economist said the economist added that the close relationship between the two neighbors “should not put other powers – China and the United States hold dangerously in Sri Lanka.”

Mr Sally stressed that “this is not the job of India” provides assistance to Sri Lanka to be “permanent”, but Mr Sally reconfirmed, whom Mr Sally himself admitted that the argument was intended to represent a generation.

In 2003, when then Prime Minister Mr. Wikremesinger gave a speech in Chennai, he proposed the idea of ​​building a bridge that connects Ramswaran of Tamil Nadu to Talaimannar in the northern province of Sri Lanka, as part of his larger vision of national economic integration, covering his country and southern India.

Huge potential

Mr Sally admitted: “The political barrier between certain parts of Sri Lanka is Tamil Nadu.” He added: “We are talking about Tamil Nadu and three or four other states that do well economically.”

On one question whether the current government accepted the idea of ​​Sri Lanka’s integration with the South India supply chain, Mr Sally replied: “It depends on groups outside the government – ​​business and civil society – to make the case come up and find people from the government to support the case.

Regarding the political and economic situation in Sri Lanka, economists have stated, based on both the British and Sri Lanka roots that the formation of the dominant NPP-JVP “has become the main force of the country” and there is no effective objection in the political environment. So far, no corruption charges have been filed against it.

Economic status

Economically, the stability programme was formulated by the previous government of Wakeremesinger and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, consistent with the International Monetary Fund [International Monetary Fund] Plans lift Sri Lanka out of the economic crisis. “But. It has not put Sri Lanka on the road to recovery.” The current government must “beyond the reform of the IMF” and the country should speed up debt, which should expire in 2027, in addition to bringing additional revenue to other requirements.

But if Sri Lanka sticks only to the IMF reform, the country could “grow at a fairly low level of economic growth and sow seeds for the next economic crisis.”