Colombo, April 15 – Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister Ranil Wickramasighe will visit Vietnam for talks with Premier Nguyen Xuan Phuc in a bid to strengthen trade, economic and industrial relations.
Prime Minister Wickramasinghe and Mrs Maithree Wickramasinghe will visit Vietnam from April 16 to 19, a statement from his office said.
Fisheries Minister Mahinda Amaraweera, Telecom Minister Harin Fernando, National Reconciliation Minister Mano Ganeshan and senior officials will be part of the delegation.
Vietnam welcomed foreign and private enterprises staring from its Đổi Mới economic reforms in 1986 abandoning state planning and self-sufficiency policies that brought the country to the brink of starvation.
Vietnam has seen large scale foreign investment from the West and also Japan and Korea.
Despite a sluggish global economy, Vietnam drew foreign investments of 15.8 billion US dollars, up 9 percent from a year earlier, with 24.3 billion dollars of agreements and expansion projects committed.
Sri Lanka expropriated private businesses in 2011, slapped retrospective taxes in 2015 and ratcheted up price controls from that year.
Sri Lanka drew about 300 million dollars of FDI in 2016, the EconomyNext reported.