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Sri Lanka's top business chamber on Thursday urged the government to be more transparent over a new Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) with India.
The Ceylon Chamber of Commerce (CCC) said in a statement that while it reaffirmed its support toward an agreement that widens and deepens Sri Lanka's economic engagement with India, it also urged the authorities involved in the ETCA process to adopt a systematic consultative and information sharing process with the private sector.
"An important element in the overall process of forging new agreements is transparent, systematic, and broad-based consultations with the private sector," the CCC said.
"Any bilateral or regional agreement that Sri Lanka forges must be supportive of the country's holistic economic interests (rather than cater to individual business interests); must recognise size asymmetry of the economy; and must take a phased approach to liberalisation where domestic regulatory systems need updating (for instance, on movement of natural persons in professional services)," it said.
The Chamber also called on India to move quickly to clear some contentious issues facing Sri Lankan businesses that trade with India in order to build confidence over the new economic pact.
"Undoubtedly, there are valid concerns of an uneven playing field faced by Sri Lankan business in India," the chamber said.
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said the ETCA agreement will be signed by the middle of this year and assured that the agreement would not pose any harm to the island nation.
He said a delegation from India will arrive in the country in March when the agreement will be finalized.
