Trade deals with India and China will benefit Sri Lanka: Sajith

Sri  Lanka should make use of its proximity to India and get into trade  deals with the nation as it will be beneficial to our people, Leader of  Opposition Sajith Premadasa said.   
Speaking during a meeting of Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB)  intellectuals, Mr. Premadasa said trade deals with India will help Sri  Lanka to get into bigger markets.   
“The brain drain that is in existence in our society will  end only if you make the right reforms, if we attract more and more foreign  direct investment and create opportunities. We must play to our  strengths. Especially our strategic locations when it comes to shipping  lines and our proximity to India. India has over a billion people, while  Sri Lanka as only 22 million.

This means that trade deals which provide  easy access to big markets such as India and China would benefit our  country. Sri Lanka should also plan foreign direct investment to fix the  brain drain,” he said.    “We in SJB do not promote extreme right-wing and extreme  left-wing. We believe that a nation should be developed through capitalism.  That capitalism has to have a human face. We believe in capitalism  with a human face. We also reject the command control system, communism and  extreme socialism as a prescription for the ills of our society. We also  believe social democratic ideals and certain socialist ideals are  important in establishing social justice. We don’t subscribe to a neo-liberal trickle-down policy which believes in empowering the rich and  let it go down to the bottom level. We also believe that extreme  socialism has no place in our society.   
Also, he said Sri Lanka should prevent class system,  caste system and ethnic-based politics. He said Sri Lanka has been  broken up in the past because of these factors. “We have to leave these  factors behind,” he said.