Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe has said his vision for future ties with India holds a stronger economic relationship. Sri Lanka will vote to elect its next President in two days and Mr Wickremesinghe is seeking another term in office. The elections will be key in deciding the future reforms in the country, currently reeling under an unprecedented economic crisis.
"We need to have a stronger economic relationship. Our social and cultural relationship has been going on for 1,000 years," Mr Wickremesinghe told NDTV in an exclusive interview.
"We want to encourage more investments from India and more tourists from India. We are working together with India on infrastructure projects like the Trincomalee Harbour," he added.
He further said, his priority areas of focus with regards to ties with India includes, renewable energy, for which there is a big demand in India. "When the Singapore-India cables come we can get on to that," he said. It is understood that India and Singapore have planned to connect their power grids through an undersea cable via Andaman and Nicobar, which will allow India to sell renewable energy to Singapore.
Sri Lanka's economy suffered a near total collapse in 2022 after a severe shortage of foreign currency reserves. The island country was unable to finance even the most essential imports, causing massive social unrest. Then president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fled the country, which led to then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe being elected as president.
"I took over as President when the country was in utter chaos and no one thought we could stabilise this fast. But I knew from experience that we could go ahead provided we had the support of the International Monetary Fund and our creditors," the President said.
"I have ensured we come back to normalcy. Law and order is functioning, democracy is functioning and although we have stabilised the economy, now we have to decide our path. Are we going to get into the same old ways or are we working towards (building) a strong export economy? I have asked for a mandate to go ahead," Mr Wickremesinghe said.
The leader also talked about his key rivals. "I find my two main opponents are not aware about the economy. One claims to be a market economy, he's giving everything virtually away for free. Where is the money for that? We don't have the money for that."
One of his key rivals is Anura Kumara Dissanayaka, who is the leader of a once-marginal Marxist party tarnished by its violent past. The party led two failed uprisings in the 1970s and 1980s that left more than 80,000 people dead, and won less than four per cent of the vote in the last parliamentary elections.
Sri Lanka's crisis has proven an opportunity for Mr Dissanayaka, who has seen a surge of support.
According to news agency AFP, fellow opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, once dismissed as the princeling dynast of a former president assassinated in 1993 during the country's decades-long civil war, is also favoured to make a strong showing. He has campaigned on a pledge to secure concessions from the IMF.
"The Samagi Jana Balawegaya wants to give everything away for free. Only a headache is left for them to give away for free. The National People's Power doesn't know which way to go, their economic policies are a mismatch. They are playing on the difficulties of the people but they don't give an answer about how they will get out of it," he said.
In light of Saturday's elections, the president also outlined his own agenda. "I want to make our economy export oriented. That will bring prosperity to the people. I've already brought in the economic transformation act in parliament. We have set benchmarks for the country to achieve. If we achieve those, we will become an export oriented economy. When we restructure it, we have to look at the areas in which we can take off, like modernising agriculture and renewable energy."
He said he has also envisioned a "better educated and trained workforce to become part of supply chains and bring manufacturing to Sri Lanka".
