Ambassador Rudrendra Tandon, Secretary (East), Ministry of External Affairs,
Ambassador Anil Trigunayat, President of MIICCIA,
Excellencies and colleagues from the BIMSTEC Member State Missions,
Members of the business community,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good afternoon.
Let me begin by thanking MIICCIA, and Ambassador Trigunayat in particular, for bringing us together this afternoon.
I would like to speak about what Sri Lanka has to offer, where the opportunities lie, and what our businesses might build together.
I first came to India not as a diplomat, but as a student on an ICCR scholarship, way back in 1993. I studied in Pune. The India I arrived in was opening its economy at the time. The India in which I now have the privilege of serving has an economy that, in dollar terms, is more than ten times larger.
Sri Lanka is India’s closest maritime neighbour, separated by just about 34 kilometres of sea. And I have often asked myself: how fully have we shared in India’s remarkable growth?
In some respects, more than is often recognised. India is today our largest trading partner and our second-largest export market. Our exports to India exceeded a billion dollars last year, recording an increase of around 17 per cent. India is also our largest source of tourist arrivals. More than 400,000 Indian visitors have already travelled to Sri Lanka this year. Over half-a-million-last travelled last year. Meanwhile, more than 200,000 Sri Lankans travel to India annually, many of them on pilgrimage.
These are substantial connections. But, I believe we have only just begun to realise what is possible. It is that untapped potential that I would like to briefly touch upon today.
Sri Lanka’s commercial proposition has always begun with geography. As long ago as the sixth century, a merchant from Alexandria described our island as lying at the centre of the sea routes, visited by ships from every part of India, as well as from Persia and Ethiopia, while sending out many of its own.
The geography has not changed. But geography alone does not guarantee prosperity. The real opportunity lies in what we build around it, and in whom we build it with.
I see four areas of particular promise.
First, ports and logistics – The Port of Colombo is one of the region’s major transshipment hubs. Indian cargo accounts for a substantial share of its business. In a very real sense, it is shared infrastructure: serving India’s trade as well as Sri Lanka’s.
This partnership is deepening. The Colombo West International Terminal, developed through a partnership involving Indian and Sri Lankan interests, began operations last year. Just last week, our Prime Minister inaugurated its second phase, doubling its capacity.
Our ambition must now extend beyond the port itself. We want to build a wider ecosystem of warehousing, distribution, logistics technology, shipping services and value-added activities.
For Indian companies, Sri Lanka offers a nearby platform from which to consolidate cargo, undertake selected value-adding activities and connect with markets across the Indian Ocean and beyond.
The opportunity is not simply to move more goods through Sri Lanka. It is to create more value from the movement of those goods.
Second, manufacturing and trade – Sri Lanka has established strengths in apparel, rubber products, tea, spices and food processing. Our next challenge is to move further up the value chain, creating more sophisticated products, developing new capabilities and retaining more value within our economy. This is where partnership matters.
The India-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement, which entered into force in the year 2000, was a landmark in the economic relationship between our two countries. It has created opportunities for businesses on both sides. Today, goods meeting the relevant rules of origin can benefit from preferential access to India’s vast market.
But the Agreement is now more than a quarter of a century old. It was designed in a different era, when trade was understood largely in terms of goods crossing borders. Businesses today operate through regional value chains, digital platforms, services and increasingly complex production networks.
We need to modernise our economic partnership to reflect these realities, making it easier for businesses to trade, invest, source inputs, and build production networks across our two countries. And investment already shows what is possible.
While India is a major investor in Sri Lanka, investment also flows in the other direction. Brandix, a Sri Lankan company, has established an apparel manufacturing city in Visakhapatnam that provides employment to more than 20,000 Indians, the majority of them women. This is much more than a Sri Lankan investment in India. It is an example of how capital, expertise and enterprise can create jobs and opportunities in both countries. We would like to see many more such partnerships.
Third, tourism – This is another area of considerable promise. Sri Lanka offers considerably more than a beach holiday.
Within an island of approximately 65,000 square kilometres, a traveller can discover eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites, ancient cities, sacred Buddhist sites, places associated with the Ramayana, tropical rainforests, bio-diversity hotspots, and the tea country. One can watch a blue whale, the largest marine mammal on Earth, in the morning, and encounter an elephant in the wild by the afternoon.
The Pekoe Trail, a network of walking routes through our tea country, illustrates the kind of experience-led tourism we want to develop: bringing together landscape, village life, heritage and local enterprise.
Sri Lanka already has world-class hotels and hospitality infrastructure. But there is room for much more: pilgrimage and wellness tourism, weddings, conferences, golf, diving, surfing and other experiences that bring visitors back, encourage longer stays and spread economic benefits to more communities.
For Indian investors and tourism operators, the opportunities extend well beyond building hotels. They include developing experiences, connecting destinations, creating new products and bringing Sri Lanka’s diverse offerings to new audiences.
And the relationship is reciprocal. Sri Lankans travel to India for pilgrimage, culture, education, shopping and business. Tourism can be a powerful two-way bridge between our peoples and our economies.
Fourth, energy and digital services – Sri Lanka needs investment to realise its renewable energy potential, particularly in solar and wind power. We also have an educated workforce and a growing base in information technology and business services.
Indian companies can bring capital, technology, scale, and experience. Sri Lanka offers a capable partner, a strategic location and opportunities to develop complementary strengths.
In both sectors, the objective should be to create partnerships that build long-term capacity, rather than simply complete individual projects.
India’s role in Sri Lanka’s recent experience is important to mention in this forum. When Sri Lanka faced an economic crisis in 2022, India was the first to respond with vital support. When Cyclone Ditwah struck last November, India was again the first to arrive with assistance, and India continues to help us with recovery and reconstruction. We are deeply grateful.
That gratitude is widely shared. A Pew Research Centre survey published in August this year found that 79 per cent of Sri Lankans held a favourable view of India, the highest proportion among the 36 countries surveyed.
For us, India is not simply our largest neighbour. It is our most natural economic partner. But let us also acknowledge a fundamental reality: there is an enormous asymmetry between our two economies. India has the scale of a major global economy; Sri Lanka is a much smaller market, emerging from a serious economic crisis. That asymmetry need not make the smaller partner vulnerable. Properly managed, it can create opportunities for both.
It does, however, make a case for a partnership that recognises different capacities and development needs. We want to see Sri Lankan goods and services find a clearer, easier path into the Indian market, alongside greater investment, stronger business links and more integrated value chains.
I make this point at a BIMSTEC gathering for a reason. Leadership in a region is not a matter of size alone. It is also demonstrated through the willingness to stand by neighbours in difficulty, to build confidence and to create conditions in which others can prosper. India’s support for Sri Lanka has demonstrated the value of such leadership. That gives all of us reason to be confident about what this region can achieve together.
Let me be candid about Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka gave the English language the word serendipity. The word derives from Serendip, an old name for our island, and describes the discovery of something valuable when looking for something else. It is a lovely word. But investors, quite understandably, prefer not to depend on accidents, even happy ones.
They look for transparent procedures, efficient customs, reliable infrastructure, policy consistency and the confidence that commitments will be honoured. We understand this. Sri Lanka has moved from crisis towards stabilisation, and last month Fitch upgraded our credit rating in recognition of that progress. But we know that confidence is earned through performance, not declarations. We know there is more to do, and we are determined to do it.
I also speak as someone who had the good fortune of serving as a Director at the BIMSTEC Secretariat. The framework agreement for a BIMSTEC Free Trade Area was signed in 2004. A child born that year has by now finished university and is looking for work. I don’t think we should ask her to wait for us. The unfinished work on a regional free trade area matters. But it should not prevent us from moving ahead where progress is possible. We can improve transport and logistics links, simplify customs procedures, advance digital trade, work towards compatible standards and encourage chambers of commerce to bring businesses directly together. There is a lot that can be done and should be done.
Regional cooperation must ultimately be judged not by the number of meetings we hold or agreements we sign, but by what those agreements and arrangements allow a business to do like reaching a new market, moving a product more efficiently, finding a reliable partner, or attracting investment or creating a job.
I would like to conclude with an invitation. Sri Lanka Expo 2027 will take place in Colombo from 14 to 17 January 2027, organised by Sri Lanka’s Export Development Board. It will bring together several hundred Sri Lankan exporters with international buyers and investors.
I would like to invite the business communities of all our BIMSTEC member States – Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Thailand – to join us.
In particular, I would be grateful if MIICCIA and its members could help bring Indian buyers, investors and business leaders to Colombo. My colleagues at the High Commission will be very glad to assist in making those connections.
I hope you will see the Expo not simply as an exhibition of Sri Lankan products, but as an opportunity to explore partnerships, identify suppliers, meet potential investors and consider what our businesses can build together.
And I believe that, working together through our bilateral relationship and through BIMSTEC, we can build a region in which geography becomes an advantage, connectivity creates value, and prosperity is shared more widely.
Thank you for this opportunity.