The 5th edition of Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) Summit 2020 to be organized in Colombo, Sri Lanka in the month of September 2020. The summit will be preceded by the 17th Ministerial Meeting and 21st Senior Officials Meeting by the end of 2020.
The annual festival of St Antony’s Shrine starts in Katchatheevu Island of Sri Lanka. The festival started with the traditional flag hoisting ceremonies. St Antony is being prayed by the devotees as the patron saint of sea farers. The festival celebrations also featured the participation of more than 3,000 devotees from India. As per an agreement between the two governments, Indians are not required to possess an Indian passport or Sri Lankan visa for visiting Kachchatheevu.
Sri Lankan Government formally declared the United Nations that it will step back from the UNHRC (United Nations Human Rights Council) resolution for investigating alleged war crimes. The case was dealing with a decade-old clash with Tamil separatists.
Sri Lankan Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa will undertake a four-day visit to India and will talk about a number of key areas including trade, defence and maritime security cooperation.
The Union Cabinet has approved the Alliance Air, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Air India, to fly on international sectors between India and Sri Lanka.
HCL Technologies stated it has entered into a pact with Sri Lanka’s Board of Investment for setting up a universal delivery Centre in Colombo.
The World Bank has forecast Sri Lanka’s economic growth for 2020 at 3.3 percent. In its latest report of “World Bank’s January 2020 Global Economic Prospects,” the World Bank said for 2021 and 2022, it maintains the same forecast of 3.7 percent of economic growth in Sri Lanka.
The report further said growth in the region is expected to rise to 5.5 percent in 2020, assuming a modest rebound in domestic demand and economic activity benefiting from policy accommodation in India and Sri Lanka, as well as improved business confidence and support from infrastructure investments in Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Sri Lanka’s new government headed by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa said recently that one of its targets include achieving a 6.5-percent economic growth per annum from 2020 and a GDP growth of 6,500 U.S. dollars per capita.