The proposed Financial City better known as the Port City will function as a special jurisdiction area with its own economic and commercial laws to facilitate operations of global multinational corporations, Prime Minister said.
Delivering the keynote address at the third South Asian Diaspora Convention, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said the proposed city is ideal to fill the vacuum for a financial city along the trading route between the cities of Singapore and Dubai.
Wickremesinghe highlighted that the proposed ETCA with India is expected to be signed by the end of this year, and the agreement will “remove all barriers to trade.”
“The ETCA will provide the opportunity to strengthen cooperation between the two-port system – paving the way for an inter-related and integrated port system between the two countries.”
Prime Minister said ETCA has the potential to promote a rapid growth of the 500 billion US dollars sub regional economy.
He added that by next year the Singapore-India, the Indo-Lanka ETCA and the Sri Lanka-Singapore FTA will enable the southern sub region of South Asia and Singapore establish a tripartite arrangement for trade and investments.
Wickremesinghe reiterated that he will introduce a new Foreign Exchange Act to remove restrictions on current accounts and will reform the tax law to favour simplicity and cut red tape for business enterprises thereby offering a better environment for business.