• #163, Kirulapone Avenue, Colombo 05, Sri Lanka
  • +94 112 51 5759

sintami

Minister Mangala Samaraweera concludes his first overseas visit as Finance Minister

2017AIIB Annual Meeting FamilyMinister of Finance & Mass Media concluded his first official overseas visit after assuming office, to take part in the Board of Governors meeting of Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank held in Jeju Island in Republic of Korea from the 16th to the 17th of June 2017.



Having attended the opening session, the Minister also took part in the Governor's round table discussion on financing Asia's infrastructure priorities.


During the discussion the Minister spoke about Sri Lanka's economic growth which has been driven by large infrastructure projects.
Developing physical infrastructure must be done along with administrative and legal frameworks to ensure required policy or regulatory support to streamline and boost public and private investments.


He also said that the Government's plan is to make Sri Lanka an export driven economic and financial hub of the Indian Ocean, while creating unprecedented opportunities in many sectors. In order to achieve these objectives, the government has set out a high-level reform agenda in several key sectors of the economy, facilitating and empowering the private sector as the principle engine of growth.


Formulation of a new trade and investment policy, tax reforms, and various other measures to improve investor climate are also being implemented.


Given the rapid increase in climate related disasters in many countries, like the floods Sri Lanka faced 02 weeks ago, the building of climate/disaster resilient infrastructure will be of paramount importance for the future. If we are to meet this challenge, we must incorporate climate resilient concepts into all future infrastructure development projects.


The Hon. Minister also had the opportunity to meet Hon. Kin Dong-Yeon the Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister for Strategy & Finance of Republic of Korea, Hon. Arun Jaitley, Finance Minister of India and Hon. Sri Mulyani Indrawati, Finance minister of Indonesia for bilateral discussion on the sidelines of the AIIB Conference.

The department assists media in a macro level in welfare, training, policy planning and accreditation, and providing easy access to Government news and information.