Your Excellency President Mahinda Rajapaksa,
Hon'ble Minister for Economic Development Mr. Basil Rajapaksa,
Hon'ble Deputy Minister for Economic Development, Mr. Laxman Yapa Abeywardene,
Hon'ble Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament, India,
Hon’ble. Mr. Ajit Nivard Cabraal, Governor, Central Bank of Sri Lanka,
Dr. P.B. Jayasundara, Treasury Secretary,
Ms. Jyotsna Suri, Chairperson and MD, Lalit Suri Hospitality Group,
Mr. Kosala Wickramanayake, President, FCCISL,
Mr. Sabbas Joseph, Director, IIFA,
Mr. Eric Wikramanayake, ERI,
Delegates to the Global Business Forum from India and Sri Lanka

Ladies and Gentlemen.

May I begin this morning by expressing my gratitude to His Excellency the President of Sri Lanka for finding the time from his busy schedule and agreeing to participate in this inaugural ceremony! His personal support and guidance have inspired this event and made it a reality. His presence here is a matter of great encouragement to all the participants and reflects the very close and cordial ties that exist between India and Sri Lanka. Your Excellency, we also look forward to seeing you next week in New Delhi where a warm welcome awaits you on your State Visit. I have no doubt that this important visit will give a major boost to India-Sri Lanka relations and reinforce mutual understanding and cooperation.

Let me also thank the organizers of the IIFA Awards and FICCI for putting together this Global Business Forum, which leverages the strengths of the Indian film industry to bring business issues to the forefront and helps forge business ties and economic cooperation between countries.

I am very happy that IIFA along with its Business Forum chose to come to Sri Lanka at this very momentous time in this country's history. It is clear that, with the end of armed conflict in Sri Lanka and with both India and Sri Lanka weathering the crisis produced by the economic downturn in 2008-09, there is a great new opportunity beckoning our two countries. Unburdened by the distractions of war, Sri Lanka can now expect to unleash its full potential and work actively towards encashing the peace dividend. In the India-Sri Lanka context, these developments allow us the possibility to further strengthen and deepen our bonds of friendship and to develop a more intensive and mutually rewarding partnership.

Such a partnership should logically build on the successes that have been achieved in our upgraded economic ties over the last decade. The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between India and Sri Lanka was a pioneering effort. It has led to bilateral trade between India and Sri Lanka increasing by six times in the last ten years, with Sri Lankan exports having grown at a much faster pace than Indian exports to Sri Lanka. Thanks to the deliberately asymmetrical obligations assumed by the two countries under the FTA, the gap between Sri Lanka’s exports to and imports from India is getting narrowed.

The signs of a robust upswing in bilateral trade after a sharp decline in 2009 owing to global developments are already visible in 2010. This augurs well for the future. By diversifying trade in goods, expanding it in the services sector and stimulating investment flows from India and elsewhere, Sri Lanka is well-placed to further enhance its capacities. Today, what is required is a new vision for India-Sri Lanka economic engagement. In this vision, the two governments should, in my view, play the role of facilitators, whereby we strengthen existing mechanisms and create new ones that provide the necessary framework for a closer economic partnership. Needless to say, any such framework must fully safeguard Sri Lanka’s interests.

These initiatives will provide the right signals also to the international business community, which is interested in leveraging Sri Lanka's inherent advantages, including its strategic location astride the east-west maritime route and its proximity to the rapidly growing market of 1.1 billion people in India. Foreign investors will increasingly look at Sri Lanka as a platform for accessing not only its domestic market but the bigger market in the neighborhood and beyond. In this context, His Excellency the President’s vision of developing the country as an economic hub is a most relevant strategy.

In the past few years, Indian companies have made significant investments in Sri Lanka. Many major Indian corporate houses – TATA, CEAT, IOC, Nicolas Piramal, Airtel, UltraTech, to name a few – already have a presence in Sri Lanka. Many of these companies have plans to expand their presence through additional investments. Many others have show interest. The cumulative effect of these Indian investments has been to deliver high quality goods and services at low-cost to Sri Lankan consumers.

An equally interesting feature of recent investment growth has been the large number of successful forays by Sri Lankan companies into the Indian market. We already see the emergence of Sri Lankan and Indian companies linked in a value chain in search of cost effectiveness and competitiveness as exemplified by the investment of Brandix, or Sri Lankan brands using the weight of Indian markets to expand their business as in the case of Damro in furniture, Dankotuwa in porcelain, Colombo Dockyard in shipbuilding and MAS Holdings whose Amante Brand of garments has emerged as one of the largest brands in its segment in India within two years of its launch.

Going ahead, our companies should pursue a conscious strategy of developing forward and background linkages, whereby both participate in global value chains, bringing immense benefits to both our countries.

Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen

An area that is the primary focus of this event and where there is great potential for growth through bilateral cooperation is tourism, which is witnessing a marked revival here. India has emerged as the largest source of tourist arrivals into Sri Lanka and I am told that out of a target of 2 million tourist arrivals that Sri Lanka has set for 2016, half a million are to come from India. Let me say that with the return of peace to Sri Lanka and with the right infrastructure in place, the number of tourist arrivals from India could expand exponentially and be well above the targeted figure. For this, it is important to expand our existing travel links and revive traditional ones, including ferry services and regional air services.

Your Excellency, Ladies and Gentlemen

India and Sri Lanka are civilizational siblings -- sisters, as the President puts it. Our ties are rooted in history and our geography. Tremendous enthusiasm that IIFA has generated in Sri Lanka is a pointer to how much we have in common. A look at the map makes it eminently clear that our destinies are linked to each other. It is up to us therefore, to be inspired by our shared heritage and leverage our synergies and endowments to realize the best possible world for our future generations. In this endeavour, I can assure you, India will continue to stand steadily and solidly with Sri Lanka.

Thank you.