Australian Trade and Investment
The past year has seen strong growth in economic ties between Australia and Sri Lanka. Two- way trade and investment surpassed $1.5 billion for the first time in the most recent financial year, and we began to see what a truly modern and forward looking trade relationship might look like in future years.
In addition to traditional strengths in merchandise such as wheat, dairy, tea and textiles, growth in services is beginning to take off. Led by education and tourism, we see great potential for growth in two-way services trade. There are also strong opportunities in premium food and beverage, agribusiness, and resources and energy, among other sectors.
Australians are now the fifth largest group of tourists travelling to Sri Lanka. As the secret gets out about the amazing experiences, beautiful landscapes, delicious food and welcoming people in Sri Lanka, more Australians will come. The Sri Lankan Airlines direct flight between Melbourne and Colombo has been a great success, and we hope in time to establish more direct air links.
Increasing the yield from tourism will be important for Sri Lanka’s economy – and Australia is proud of our work to help strengthen Sri Lanka’s tourism policy framework to ensure all Sri Lankans benefit from the boom in tourism.
Likewise, Australia is proud to support Sri Lanka’s economic reform efforts, which are vital to attract more international businesses and investment. Through our development program, Australia is doing what we can to help Sri Lanka attract more FDI, become a more globally connected economy and an easier place in which to do business.
In the past year Australia has helped launch Sri Lanka’s new Trade Information Portal (TIP) and Single Window Investment Fac i l i t ation Tas k f o rc e ( SWIFT). The TIP and the SWIFT are both initiatives funded by Australia through a World Bank program. Both are significant steps in Sri Lanka’s ongoing economic reform process, and the country’s trans- formation into a more outwardoriented competitive trading economy.
This past year also saw our economic partnership expand to new areas. We established a Trade and Investment Framework Arrangement (TIFA) to guide practical steps to increase trade in both directions even further, and our first ever bilateral economic talks were held in April 2018.
TIFA provides a forum to identify and pursue trade and investment opportunities and seek to remove blockages. Already the work done on both sides has ranged from sharing experiences implementing economic reforms; approaches to advocating for and negotiating FTAs; cooperation on quarantine matters; encouraging additional higher education partnerships; and much more.
We look forward to a busy and active year ahead working with businesses, partners in Government, and anyone interested in expanding business opportunities between our two countries. We are confident our bilateral trade and investment relationship will continue to expand into the future.