The Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) between India and Sri Lanka will be signed by year end, Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said.

“The proposed technology and economic cooperation agreement will be signed by the end of this year…The Prime Minister Narendra Modi and my self have agreed on this,” said Ranil Wickremesinghe, Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, speaking at the India Economic Summit.

The economic summit is organized by World Economic Forum along with Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).                    

Wickremesinghe pointed that the five fastest growing southern states, namely Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Kerala, have a population of 250 million and a combined GDP of $400 billion. With addition of Sri Lanka’s 22 million population and $80 billion economy the GDP in the sub-region is a $500 billion economy. “That is Sweden (economy)…imagine what it would be if we (India and Sri Lanka) work together,” said Wickremesinghe.

The free trade agreement (FTA) between India and SriLanka will be expanded to beyond trading of goods and services, to investment and technology cooperation. “Asia will bail out the world (from economic downturn) if we are allowed to write the rules…else we create our own system,” said Wickremesinghe.

He said the FTA with Singapore and Indonesia by India and by Sri Lanka along with ETCA will make a strong regional economic power.

The Sri Lankan PM also proposed to bring in Indonesia and Malaysia and the BIMSTEC countries. “The whole area around the Bay of Bengal as region of economic cooperation…the growth is here,” said Wickremesinghe.