Sri Lanka may accept Indian rupee for local transactions
Sri Lanka is studying the possibility Allow the use of Indian rupees for local transactions Just like the dollar, euro and yen, foreign minister Ali Sabri said on Saturday to facilitate Indian tourists and businessmen.
Sabri was briefing the media here on President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s visit to India from July 20-21, his first time since taking office last year. He held talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday.
“We have studied the possibility of using the Indian rupee just as we accept the dollar, the euro and the yen,” he said.
Allowing its direct use will prevent the need for multiple currency conversions for Indian tourists and businessmen.
On Friday, the two countries noted that the decision to designate INR as the currency for trade settlements between the two countries has created stronger and mutually beneficial trade links, and agreed to activate digital payments based on the Unified Payments Interface to further enhance trade and transactions between businesses and the general public.
the Two states signed A network-to-network agreement between NIPL and Lanka Pay to accept the UPI application in Sri Lanka after bilateral talks between Modi and Wickremesinghe.
In the Memorandum of Understanding signed with India on the development of Trincomalee as a regional hub for industry, energy and bilateral cooperation, Sabri saw no objections coming from China.
“We are a non-aligned country, we just signed a memorandum of understanding to identify feasible projects through a joint committee. I don’t think any country would oppose such open and transparent dealings,” Sabri said.
port connection
Sabri said that the two leaders agreed on the importance of linking ports between the two countries.
To get to the next level, we need investments. We discussed avenues that would benefit both countries. “The relations were emphasized not only between the two governments but between the private sector,” Sabri said.
He said that consideration was given to the possibility of Sri Lanka benefiting from the broad economic development in the South Indian region.
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“The two leaders agreed to link the ports for this purpose,” Sabri said.
It was agreed between the two leaders on the need to connect the port between Colombo and Trincomalee and the South Indian region.
He said that the necessary studies will soon be conducted to build a land link bridge or to continue the current ferry services. He added that the issue of acquiring an Indian university to help digitize Sri Lanka was also discussed.