Connect with us

News

Govt. to focus on resuming talks on FTAs

Published

on

Government’s intention was to resume the negotiations on Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), said Secretary to the President Saman Ekanayake.

It is the vision of the President that Sri Lanka will integrate with the global value chains and with the largest economies in South Asia and East Asia and then expand to the east region linking to the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

Further, the Secretary to the President invited private sector stakeholders to creatively engage in this development initiative as they are the ultimate beneficiaries.

He made these observations during an awareness session on the resumption of negotiations of free trade agreements held for Trade Chambers and Industry Advisory Committees at the Finance Ministry on November 16.

Secretary to the Treasury, Secretaries of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Industries, and the members of the National Trade Negotiation Committee also participated.

The contours of Global trade have been significantly changed in recent years by bringing regional and global production networks as driving factors of international trade where Sri Lanka has not yet been engaged to tap the potential. Both the growth of supply capacity and the expansion of market access are therefore, recognized as essential for revitalizing the domestic economy.

Towards this end, the government intends to operationalize the FTA with Singapore and has taken steps to resume the negotiations of free trade agreements with India, China and Thailand where foreign direct investment can be largely attracted to channel the benefits to the goods and services trade through the Investment Trade nexus.

A Trade Negotiation Committee has already been appointed by the Cabinet of Ministers to reinvigorate the negotiations and these agreements will ultimately pave the path to gaining membership of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) which consists of 30% of the world’s GDP, trade and population.

During his remarks, Secretary to the Treasury – Mahinda Siriwardhana emphasized the importance of leveraging the non-debt creating inflows and diversification of export products as well as markets.

He also mentioned the budget proposal- 2023 of establishing the International Trade Office (ITO) which will deal with all international trade negotiations in the future. The Treasury Secretary also emphasized the necessity of engagement with chambers and other stakeholders during the negotiation process.

Secretary to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Mrs. Aruni Wijewardana highlighted that foreign missions and diplomatic channels have fully prepared to facilitate these trade negotiations. According to the government plan, once the proposed institutional mechanism is properly established the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will bear the mandate of international trade negotiations.

The private sector representatives engaged in the session with great enthusiasm and stressed in detail the necessity of giving the highest consideration to their offensive and defensive interests.

They also made a request to focus on other non-tariff barriers such as certain quota restrictions, various issues on laboratory facilities for testing standards, not having mutual standards recognition agreements etc. that are faced by the exporters, through these agreements while removing duties on our exports.

During this kick-off session of the stakeholder consultations, the National Trade Negotiation Committee gave the assurance of conducting broad dialogue with the private sector throughout the negotiations through the responsible government institutions.

Continue Reading

News

Six killed in Nashville school shooting

Published

on

By

Six people have been killed in a school shooting in the US city of Nashville, Tennessee, BBC reported.

Three of the victims were pupils aged nine or under at Covenant School, a privately run Christian school.

They were named by police as Evelyn Dieckhaus, Hallie Scruggs and William Kinney.

The adult victims were employees and named as Cynthia Peak, 61, Katherine Koonce, 60, and Mike Hill, 61.

Covenant School has about 200 students, and teaches pupils from three years old up to around 12.

Ms Peak was a substitute teacher working at the school that day. Mr Hill was a janitor and Ms Koonce is described as the Head of School on Covenant’s website.

Police named the suspect as a 28-year-old woman, Audrey Hale, who identified as transgender.

Hale was armed with three guns, including a semi-automatic rifle, and was shot dead by police.

Nashville Police Chief John Drake said the shooter had conducted surveillance, and that maps of the building showing entry and exit points were found at a nearby home.

Police received the first call about the incident at 10:13 local time on Monday morning.

Police said the suspect got in by firing through one of the school doors, which were all locked.

Continue Reading

News

Grenade found from garden of Kabaddi Federation President

Published

on

By

A live grenade manufactured abroad has been found in front of the house of Sri Lanka Kabaddi Federation President – Mr. Anura Dharmaratne, which is located in the Dolahamuna area in Hettipola.

Mr. Dharmaratne had lodged a complaint yesterday (26) with the Hettipola police, saying that there’s a grenade in front of his car which was parked on his land.

He had claimed someone had planted the grenade thus after someone who had been offended after it was announced that he was going to contest for the Kabbaddi presidency again.

Subsequently, police had visited the premises and seized the grenade.
So far, no arrests have been made in connection with the incident.

Continue Reading

News

Army Sanath arrested

Published

on

By

Notorious criminal and drug trafficker – ‘Army Sanath’ has been arrested in the Ahangama area during an operation carried out by the Police Special Task Force in Ahangama area.

He had also been in possession of 15 grams of heroin at the time of arrest.

According to the Police STF, ‘Army Sanath’ has operated the crime and drug ring of another notorious criminal – ‘Harak Kata’.

Authorities also say that it has been revealed that ‘Army Sanath’ had been in charge of transporting weapons for a spate of recent shootings as well as cleaning these weapons following the shootings and handing them over to various persons on the instructions of ‘Harak Kata’.

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2022 Sri Lanka Mirror. All Rights Reserved