COLOMBO: The Sri Lankan government supports Indonesia’s maritime policy of maintaining security in its territory and developing favorable economic conditions.
“Sea territory is important. So creating more seaports as part of maritime development is very important, as is improving connectivity with eastern Indonesia,” Sri Lankan Ambassador to Indonesia Anoja Wijeyesekera said.
According to Wijeyesekera, both Sri Lanka and Indonesia are located in strategic locations of maritime access that are crossed by ships carrying commodities.
The ambassador added that the countries will most likely conduct further maritime cooperation in the near future, including tackling the issue of smuggling of people.
Wijeyesekera also aims to increase the total volume of trade with Indonesia to US$1 billion within a few years. She noted that the total volume of trade between the countries in 2014 was US$500 million.
According to data from the Indonesian Foreign Affairs Ministry, commodities from the country that are exported to Sri Lanka include a variety of paper products, materials such as textile yarn, fabric and denim, tires, cement and clinker, glass and plastic products, palm oil, fishery products, livestock feed, and chemical products.
Among the small number of goods imported from Sri Lanka are tea, glass products, gunny, yarn and fabric, electrical equipment, and precious stones.
Furthermore, she believes that the tourism sector has potential for improvement. “Sri Lanka and Indonesia have good tourist destinations. Many Buddhists from Sri Lanka visit Borobudur Temple and Indonesian Buddhists visit religious sites in Sri Lanka,” Ambassador Wijeyesekera pointed out.
