(UTV|COLOMBO) – China says Sri Lanka stands to gain from a free trade system and no other country could better understand the importance of upholding the free trading system than Sri Lanka.
Cheng Xueyuan, the Ambassador of China to Sri Lanka said that Sri Lanka will certainly gain faster and better development from the free and open world trading system.
In an opinion article, the Ambassador said that the year 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening-up and also the 17th anniversary of China’ accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).
In 2001, China acceded to the WTO, which marked a new historic stage of reform and opening-up and was a milestone in China’s integration into economic globalization.
Over the past 17 years, China has been developing rapidly and making all-round progress. Now it has grown into the world’s second largest economy and largest trading country.
Cheng Xueyuan said that China’s development has benefited the whole world, including Sri Lanka.
He said the value of bilateral trade with Sri Lanka has reached 4.4 billion US dollars in 2017.
“A large quantity of high-quality and inexpensive products made in China such as household appliances, electronic products, furniture and toys have been exported to Sri Lanka, making continuous contributions to improving the living standard of Sri Lankan people. 268,952 Chinese tourists came to Sri Lanka in 2017, which is a continuation of the two countries’ thousand years of connections through Buddhism. This has made concrete contributions to the development of hotels, catering, tourism services of the local area, and various industries in food, clothing, accommodation, transportation, featured products of the neighboring regions,” he said.
The Ambassador said that the data and facts show that if China becomes better, Sri Lanka and the rest of the world will also become better.
He said that Sri Lanka has not only played its role as a “central node” in promoting global trade development, but also benefited a lot from the free trading system.
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