The signing of the MOU took place in the Andra Pradesh Chamber head office.

The MoU is aimed at fostering friendship and promote trade, investment, social, economic, human resource development, technical and scientific cooperation, friendship and other spheres of economic activity between the two nations.

According to a communique issued by the FCCISL Samantha Abeywickrama, Secretary General of FCCISL said there is immense potential left to further expand bilateral trade between India and Sri Lanka. Since the signing of the Indo-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (FTA) in March 2000 trade has grown rapidly between the two countries.

Abeywickrama said that negotiations on India and Sri Lanka Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) is now ready to be signed and thus it would facilitate the inclusion of investment and services in addition to deepening commitments embodied in the FTA.

Shri Suraj Prasad Agrawal, President, FAPCCI said the Free Trade Agreement signed between Sri Lanka and India in 2000 has accelerated the development of economic cooperation and with growing mutual trade; a bilateral trade volume worth US $ 5 billion is envisaged to be achieved by 2010.

He said that to boost the SME sector in Sri Lanka, India has extended 3 lines of credit for exclusive procurement of goods and services from India to enhance the purchasing power of Sri Lanka.
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