India-Sri Lanka road link to further strengthen trade ties, says expert

Establishing India-Sri Lanka road link strengthens trade ties, emphasizing importance of effective international relations for economic growth.

Establishing a road link between India and Sri Lanka will go a long way in further strengthening the trade ties between the two nations, said K. Amirthalingam, senior professor of Economics at University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Speaking at the national conference on ‘International Economic Relations: The Sustainable Development Challenges’ organised jointly by Sri Padmavati Mahila Viswa Vidyalayam (SPMVV) Department of Women’s Studies and Sri Venkateswara University (SVU) Department of Econometrics here on Wednesday, he laid emphasis on maintaining effective international relations as a prerequisite to ensure a growing economy.

Prof. Amirthalingam spoke about how an economic crisis gripped a war-torn Sri Lanka and they looked to India for support. .

“Like a mother, India has the habit of rushing to the rescue of its neighbouring countries in case of trouble. India sent rescue ships to us during the Tsunami, sent free vaccines to our frontline warriors during Covid-19 pandemic and offered us tonnes of food material during our economic crisis”, he recalled.

While countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Maldives and Sri Lanka started crumbling under pressure due to the economic crisis, he hailed India for registering an impressive six percent growth rate and attributed it to stability and accommodative nature of the Indian government.

“Narendra Modi can hug Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on one side and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the other, holds talks with Israel as well as with the Gulf countries. It is this global acceptability that helps India retain its ‘leader’ tag even on the economic front”, he remarked.

SPMVV Dean (Humanities) in-charge Kiran Prasad presided over the session, while K. Krishnamurthy, a retired professor of SVU highlighted the international initiatives to achieve sustainable developmental goals. A. Arumugam, Director (Management Studies) at Maruthupandiar College, Tanjavur, SPMVV Women’s Studies head in-charge P. Neeraja, seminar conveners P. Madhavi and K. Suneetha also spoke.