By: Staff Writer
Colombo (LNW): With over five decades-long diplomatic and trade ties between Japan and Sri Lanka since 1952, the present government takes all diplomatic efforts to rebuild Japanese businesses lost confidence due to the abrupt and arbitrary policy changes.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe recently highlighted the importance of Japanese investments to push the revival of Sri Lanka while affirming commitment to stabilizing and liberalizing the economy and actively inviting new foreign ventures.
He shared the government’s interest to attract Japanese enterprises and discussed the various measures and reforms being implemented to create a conducive business environment for potential investors.
Sri Lanka’s intentions were shared at the business roundtable ‘Sri Lanka’s Economic Revival and Opportunities for Japanese Enterprise’, which was jointly organised by the JETRO, Japan-Sri Lanka Business Co-Operation and Embassy of Sri Lanka in Japan.
The event was aimed at strengthening economic ties between the two nations.Recognising Japan’s significance as a vital economic partner, President Wickremesinghe emphasised the mutual benefits that can be derived from increased collaboration between the two nations.
Sri Lanka’s strategic location and skilled workforce were highlighted as key advantages, providing a gateway for Japanese companies to expand their operations in the region and leverage the country’s emerging economic opportunities.
As Sri Lanka continues its journey toward economic revival, President Wickremesinghe’s active participation in the roundtable underscores the government’s unwavering commitment to attracting foreign investment and driving sustainable economic progress, a statement by the President’s Media Division said.
He also met with the Japan-Sri Lanka Parliamentary Friendship Association, and Japan’s Minister of Digitization.
With the latter, Sri Lanka President emphasized the importance of enhancing cooperation between Japan and Sri Lanka, in their respective digital transformation endeavours.
The Ambassador for Japan in Sri Lanka Mizukoshi Hideaki stated: in Colombo “On the governance and transparency of the economic policies, in the past, there have been very frequent changes of policies that have caused the loss of trust by Japanese businesses.”
He further emphasized that other than the improvement of policies related to rooting up corruption and narrowing of the income gap, improving the efficiency of the State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) to become investor-friendly, is looked forward to by Japan since Sri Lanka’s government permission procedures are “slow”.
“It hinders the appetite for Japanese investments,” said Ambassador Hideaki adding that on building Japanese confidence by the private sector of Sri Lanka, the sincerity of the Sri Lankan partners and sound communication play a key role in making business decisions.
He stressed that Japan supports and prioritizes the sustainable development of Sri Lanka along with improvement in the investment environment in Sri Lanka.
Meanwhile, the Government of Japan supports Sri Lanka’s efforts in order to meet the conditions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).
