Sri Lanka will be developed into a global city that will go between Dubai and Singapore where international trade and movement is concerned, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said today.

Speaking at the Sri Lanka Economic Forum 2016 in Colombo, the Prime Minister said the time had come to make plans to fulfil this objective.

“Our objective is to make Sri Lanka the most competitive nation in the Indian Ocean and to develop the island as a mega city for the region that will go between Singapore and Dubai thus make it competitive and the time has come for us to think how we are going to do it,” he said.

He also stressed the need for economical links between Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu and also with other Indian states such as Gujarat.

“Sri Lanka is the first nation in South Asia to embrace open economy, first in Asia to go for free education and one of the first nations in the region to enjoy universal franchise, “ the Premier recalled while stressing that the country should move forward from being a low income earning country. “ We can’t continue as a low income country and should decide how we could go ahead,” he said.

He indicated that Sri Lanka would have to take stock of the global economic situation and its own shortcomings and opportunities and would convert the economy into a manufacturing based one. Further he said the country will have to look at agriculture and modernize the sector. “Sri Lanka did focus on agriculture in the past when it launched the Mahaweli Development but unfortunately it was not possible to go forward from there,” he said.(Yohan Perera)