Sri Lanka needs more aggressive marketing and promotions to attract more foreign travellers but more than that it needs to relax its visa regulations to encourage foreigners to visit the country, said Ambassador to the UAE in Sri Lanka, Khaled Nasser Al Ameri.
He was speaking at a bilateral Trade and Investment Session between Sri Lanka and the UAE hosted by the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka in Colombo last week. Ameri said Sri Lanka needs little more polishing of its procedures for visitors which would incentivise them to travel to the beautiful island.
“Relaxing the visa regulations and helping foreign travellers to stay and work online will make Sri Lanka more attractive to travelers,” the ambassador said.
A Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Sri Lanka and the UAE is in the pipeline according to the UAE Ambassador.
“Negotiations for a FTA with Sri Lanka hopefully will start next year,” the ambassador said citing ongoing discussions on FTAs with many countries as the reason for the delay.
Trade between Sri Lanka and the UAE stood at US$ 341 million last year. Exports from Sri Lanka comprised coffee, tea, mate and spices, apparel, fruits and vegetables, rubber, fish and beverages.
The UAE Ambassador said that his country is no longer considered an oil exporting nation but a trading country with two major port companies operating over 60 ports across the globe.
“We are well connected to the rest of the world with airlines connecting over 300 cities. Sri Lanka can use this opportunity to expand trade with the UAE,” Ameri said.
The UAE which is constantly modernizing its economy has a vibrant banking sector facilitating trade across diverse sectors.
“Technology is the future and we invest heavily on AI operations even outside UAE,” the ambassador said.
The MoU inked between the National Chamber of Commerce of Sri Lanka and the Federation of UAE Chambers of Commerce and Industry to set up a UAE-Sri Lanka joint chamber was hailed by both Sri Lankan Ambassador to the UAE and the UAE Ambassador to Sri Lanka.
The meetings of the joint chamber are expected to begin soon according to the officials of the chambers.
Joining the session virtually the Ambassador of Sri Lanka to UAE Prof. Arusha Cooray said Sri Lanka needs to leverage on its IT/BPO sector, tourism, logistics, pharmaceutical and solar panel installation sectors to expand trade and investments with the UAE.
The bilateral trade and investment discussions centred on exploring opportunities for the Sri Lankan business community to directly engage with the UAE Ambassador and gain firsthand insights into the UAE’s trade policies, investment climate, and the growing scope for bilateral collaboration.
Sri Lanka is considered one of the countries friendly to the UAE, as the ties of friendship and economic relations between the two countries date back many years, when the Arabs arrived in Sri Lanka two thousand years ago for the purpose of trade, and diplomatic relations were established between the two countries in July 1979 with the opening of the Sri Lankan embassy in Abu Dhabi.
