ETCA to be signed on October 30- on Tamil Diwali?

Sri Lanka and India have decided to finalise the text of the Economic and Technological Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) so that it can be signed by Diwali (October 30), the great Hindu festival of colours now being celebrated the world over, including Sri Lanka.

“A decision to this effect was taken by Sri Lankan Minister of Strategies and International Trade Malik Samarawickrama and India’s Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman when they met in New Delhi early this week,” Sri Lankan High Commissioner to India Esala Weerakoon told press.

Weerakoon, who attended the meeting between the two ministers, said the two ministers are keen that the ETCA is signed preferably by Diwali, but definitely by the year-end.

In a bid to speed up the process of negotiations to make this possible, India is sending a delegation of senior officials to Colombo on July 20 for two days of confabulations to put together a broad framework of the crucial agreement.

It will be led by Bhupinder Bhalla, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and comprise officials from several concerned departments.

Thereafter, a Sri Lankan team will visit India for a second round of negotiations in New Delhi, to be followed by a final round in Colombo.

Meanwhile, Ms Sitharaman will visit Colombo in August for consultations with Samarawickrama.

Speaking to Indian business leaders at a luncheon meeting at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) here on Tuesday, Samarawickrama said negotiations are underway to transform the existing Indo-Lanka Free Trade Agreement (FTA) into a comprehensive Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA).

“The intention is to deepen the current agreement in goods by reducing the negative list on the basis of less than full reciprocity and widen it to include services, investment, technology and training. This will clearly open up new opportunities for Indian and other foreign investors to locate in Sri Lanka to access the markets of the fastest growing large economy in the world on a preferential basis,” the minister explained.

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