bailout<\/a> programme and the debt deal is expected to reopen doors to bilateral transactions, resuming foreign-funded projects that were suspended when the country defaulted four years ago. <\/p>\n“The year 2026 is a year of rebuilding and reconstruction,” Mr Weerasinghe told bankers in Dubai. “We would like UAE banks to be part of Sri Lanka\u2019s recovery that is steady despite the shock we had in December when Cyclone Ditwah hit our country. <\/p>\n
“We want to share information with the banks that goes beyond media headlines to encourage them to get back to the same levels of business they had before the crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chathuranga Abeysinghe, Sri Lanka\u2019s Deputy Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship, was part of the delegation to the UAE that included top officials of the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Colombo Stock Exchange. <\/p>\n
He met investors and bankers in the UAE over the past two days and had meetings in Riyadh at the weekend. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a great opportunity for Middle Eastern investors to invest in Sri Lanka ,\u201d he told The National. <\/p>\n
“There are various opportunities in tourism, the IT sector, opportunities for FDI [foreign direct investment] in the mineral sector, agricultural transformation, the renewable energy sector.”<\/p>\n
Mr Abeysinghe urged senior bankers from various UAE banks to take a closer look at Sri Lanka, pointing to strong manufacturing capacity, reform against corruption, and digitalisation of public sector processes for government efficiency that would provide greater transparency. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you had different views about us before, I think now it’s time to relook at us,\u201d he said. \u201cI would like you to come for a few days to Sri Lanka and experience the vibe. People are very hopeful.\u201d<\/p>\n
He blamed systemic corruption and fiscal indiscipline of previous administrations for the crisis. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe had very rigid government processes added to a high level of corruption,\u201d he said. \u201cThe fundamental root course of our crisis was fiscal indiscipline.\u201d<\/p>\n
Resilient nation<\/p>\n
Sri Lanka declared bankruptcy in 2022, suspended repayments towards about $80 billion in domestic and foreign loans, amid a foreign exchange crisis that resulted in citizens lining up for hours to buy scare fuel, food, medicine and cooking gas. <\/p>\n
The current government headed by President Anura Dissanayake was elected in 2024 on a platform of reducing waste, fighting corruption and modernising government. <\/p>\n
Mr Abeysinghe said the administration is working to integrate to capitalise on a strong regional market. <\/p>\n
\u201cIf you draw a circle around us, we have access to about a 3.4 billion population – so with two hours of air travel anything from agriculture, fish and floral goods can be delivered fast – Sri Lanka can be the hub,” he said.<\/p>\n
“We are also politically neutral. We work very well with China, work very closely with India and we have a very good relationship with US. Sri Lanka will continue to be the region’s politically neutral destination.\u201d<\/p>\n
Banking officials from the UAE said it was a \u201ctimely move\u201d for the central bank to improve confidence by providing details of reform and governance. <\/p>\n
About 350,000 Sri Lankans live in the UAE. Friday’s meeting was organised by the Sri Lankan embassy and the Sri Lankan Bankers Association UAE.<\/p>\n
Arusha Cooray, Sri Lanka\u2019s ambassador to the UAE, said the Emirates is Colombo’s largest trading partner in the Middle East, and the sixth largest investor overall in Sri Lanka. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are very hopeful, and unless we have hope, we can’t change the growth trajectory of our country,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo I would advise you to look at investing in Sri Lanka. We have always been very resilient. Our country bounces back quite fast, we also have a well-developed stock of human capital in addition to natural resources.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sri Lankan ministers and senior officials have urged businesses in the UAE to invest in the country\u2019s recovery…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":256807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[114,1120,184,85,46,29584,2865,789,1078,3177],"class_list":{"0":"post-256806","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-dubai","10":"tag-economy","11":"tag-il","12":"tag-israel","13":"tag-sri-lanka","14":"tag-standard","15":"tag-story","16":"tag-uae","17":"tag-uae-desk-team"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=256806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/256806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/256807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=256806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=256806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=256806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}