Jairam leads investment delegation to Sri Lanka
New Delhi, Feb 9 (UNI) After having visited Bangladesh and Maldives, Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh leaves for Sri Lanka tomorrow in pursuit of closer economic engagement with the neighbours.
As head of a high-powered investment delegation, he will hold discussions with the Island government on Monday on investment opportunities for Indian companies there.
Senior representatives of leading Indian textile, IT and infrastructure companies, including from Reliance, L&T, Mahindra and Mahindra, Aditya Birla Group, Indo-Rama, Vardhman, Arvind Mills, IOC, Quatrro, and Virtusa, are accompanying the Minister for an interaction with Sri Lankan Minister for Investment Promotion Navin Dissanayake and with the Sri Lankan Board of Investment.
During his wide-ranging discussions with Sri Lankan ministers till February 13, he will review implementation of free trade agreement between the two nations in operation since March 2000.
Commerce Ministry officials said Mr Jairam Ramesh is also expected to discuss the current status of the India-Sri Lanka Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) on which 11 rounds of negotiations have been held since February 2005. CEPA covers trade in goods, services and investment.
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