Take advantage of India, China: IMF official to Sri Lanka

Addressing the Sri Lanka Exporters' Association, Koshy Mathai, Resident Representative for International Monetary Fund (IMF), said: "Sri Lanka has a huge population not very far away from its shores which is growing fast and it should be able to absorb a lot more of Sri Lankan export".

He said Sri Lanka is "blessed" with strategically important geography, particularly important economic geography.

"India and China were not the power houses of the global economy several years ago. But now they are. That meant that it may have been in order not to have taken advantage of those economies earlier but failing to take advantage provided by the economic progress of those areas today would be a shame," said Mathai.

Sri Lanka's economy is a small one and it is only going to grow by meeting the demands of the rest of the world, and not just by satisfying domestic demand, he said.

"We are not going to have sustained economic success if we are going to have exports declining relative to the size of the economy. It is only with economic growth that Sri Lanka's economy is going to go forward," he added.