Ranil meets Singapore Finance Minister

Opposition Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe yesterday met the Finance Minister of Singapore Dharman Shanmugaratnam and held discussions on regional issues and the world food and financial crisis.
They exchanged ideas on how the countries in the region could face these crisis. It was emphasized that strengthening of ties between India, Singapore and Sri Lanka could help face these challenges.

Their view was that plans should be made to face the world food crisis from now on.

It was also discussed that although steps were taken during the Premiership of Ranil Wickremesinghe to have free trade agreements with India and Singapore, it was sad that these were not implemented properly.

Mr. Shanmugaratnam pointed out that proper implementing and strengthening these agreements were necessary to face future challenges.

UNP Matara district MP Sagala Ratnayake, Economic Advisor to the Opposition Leader Arjuna Mahendran and Singapore Ambassador to Sri Lanka Than Ka Ho were present at the discussion.