Sri Lanka would like to see the Indian rupee used at par with the US dollar, President Ranil Wickremesinghe has said days ahead of his first official visit to New Delhi.
The country’s cash-strapped Finance Minister Wickremesinghe made the remarks while addressing the Indian CEO Forum in Colombo this week.
“Just as East Asia, including countries such as Japan, Korea and China, saw significant growth 75 years ago, it is now the turn of India, along with the Indian Ocean region,” Wickremesinghe said.
Wickremesinghe is expected to visit New Delhi next week, his first since becoming president a year ago amid unprecedented economic and political turmoil in the island nation.
Wickremesinghe’s comments were in response to Forum President TS Prakash, who in his address called for increased use of the Indian rupee in the Sri Lankan economy. “If India (Indian rupee) becomes a common currency then it does not matter to us. We’ll have to figure out how to go about it. We should be more open to the outside world”, Wickremesinghe said.
India is developing rapidly: Sri Lankan President
“The world is developing and India is developing rapidly, especially under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi,” he said.
He also said that Sri Lanka benefits from proximity to India as well as a rich history, cultural heritage and 2,500-year-old trade ties, The Daily Mirror newspaper quoted him as saying. Wickremesinghe has steered the island nation out of its economic crisis and said the economy is recovering despite the slowdown.
“Once we complete the debt restructuring, our focus will shift to the comprehensive development agenda. This involves a massive change in our economy, legal framework and systems to align our path with India’s,” he said. Wickremesinghe
The 74-year-old Sri Lankan politician was elected through the Parliament to fill the remaining term of ousted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa.
Analysts said the history of Sri Lanka-India relations showed that it was unusual that Wickremesinghe’s visit to Delhi took a year. India threw in a lifeline in the final days of Rajapaksa’s presidency with a $4 billion economic aid package.
India is helping Sri Lanka after it got stuck in economic crisis
Sri Lanka used Indian credit lines to import essential goods and fuel as the country ran short of foreign exchange, leading to massive street protests.
Meanwhile, India’s High Commissioner to Sri Lanka Gopal Baglay, who was at the July 13 event, said the Indian government and the Indian business community have helped the island nation recover from last year’s financial crisis.
Sri Lankan media quoted Baglay as saying, “Even during the initial crisis, Indian businessmen started doing business in Sri Lanka to show the rest of the world that the country’s financial situation was stable.”
(with PTI inputs)
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