Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade Malik Samarawickrama and Minister of Special Assignments Sarath Amunugama are also scheduled to speak at the event with the former touching on the topic ‘The art of Sri Lanka for Japanese Investors’ and the latter with ‘Investment Opportunities available in Sri Lanka for Japanese Investors’.
Japan is a key economic partner and contributor of aid to Sri Lanka and according to statistics in 2015, Japan exported goods worth 141.4 billion yen to Sri Lanka while Sri Lanka exported goods worth of 32.6 billion yen to Japan.
Agencies such as JICA and JETRO have been closely involved in investments in Sri Lanka and according to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Japan has invested as of 2014, Rs 1.5 billion in direct investments in Sri Lanka while granting 1,035.0 billion yen (cumulative total as of fiscal 2015) in loans, 207.2 billion yen (cumulative total as of fiscal 2015) in grants and 75.3 billion yen (cumulative total as of fiscal 2015) in technical cooperation.
As Sri Lanka looks to attract more foreign direct investments into the country, Japan will be a major player on its radar. The Prime Minister’s current visit to Japan will be the government’s seventh official visit to the country since taking office in 2015.(Daily News)