Long-term investments in Lanka ‘are India’s plan to fix economic crisis’

COLOMBO: After helping Sri Lanka with an unprecedented assistance of around $4 billion since January as the country plunged into a deep economic crisis, India is now planning to invest heavily in newer sectors through both private and public firms there, Gopal Baglay, high commissioner of India to Sri Lanka, told ThePrint in an interview.

The sectors India will focus on include renewable energy, hydrocarbons, ports and infrastructure, and IT among others. Both countries are also looking at signing the long pending Economic and Technology Co-operation Agreement.

The top Indian diplomat in Colombo said New Delhi will now work with the new government there, both at the functional as well as political levels, to facilitate talks for a bailout package by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for Sri Lanka, which got stuck earlier as the situation there worsened.

The island nation has been reeling under a massive crisis following over 100 days of protests by its people, witnessing a change of regime with the ousting of former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who eventually fled the country. Subsequently, Ranil Wickremesinghe was elected as president and Dinesh Gunawardena as prime minister.

“Sri Lanka is an economy having three main sources of revenue — exports, tourism and remittances. Due to Covid, some of these sources dried up completely. Sri Lanka is now trying to come back to normal levels of functioning and the economy will benefit from more investments. As a result, we are now looking at bringing in more investments in this country,” Baglay told ThePrint.

“We will engage with the new Sri Lankan government on this for promoting greater trade, greater investment and more cooperation between the two economies,” he added.

Since January this year, India has offered aid and humanitarian assistance to the tune of around $4 billion to Sri Lanka, the largest ever given to any country, to help the island nation meet its shortage of food, fuel, medicines and other essential items.