President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena and Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha (L)
President of Sri Lanka Maithripala Sirisena and Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha have reaffirmed their commitment to raise two-way trade to 1.5 billion USD by 2020, along with achieving a trade balance.
They also agreed on the need to enhance investment flows between the two countries during their talks within the framework of the Thai PM’s official visit to Sri Lanka from July 12-13, “The Colombo Page” reported.
According to a joint press statement, the two leaders had bilateral discussions on July 12, covering a wide range of issues including political, economic, technical, agricultural, fisheries, cultural, religious, tourism, as well as regional and multilateral cooperation.
They took this occasion to announce the launch of the Thailand - Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations. Both sides expressed confidence in attaining envisaged trade target through this comprehensive instrument. The first round of negotiations was held on 13 July 2018 in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
After the talks, the leaders witnessed the signing of four memoranda of understanding on cooperation in several fields.
This was the first visit to Sri Lanka of PM Prayut Chan-o-cha. It is expected to boost bilateral collaboration in trade and investment, technology, religious affairs, culture and tourism./.