COLOMBO, Feb. 25 (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lankan government has planned to increase industrial sector's contribution to GDP from the current 26 percent to 28 percent by 2030, state media reported Tuesday, citing Thilaka Jayasundara, secretary of the Ministry of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development.
Jayasundara said the government has also planned to raise entrepreneurs' contribution to the economy from 3.2 percent to 10 percent by 2030.
Currently, merchandise export revenue accounts for 16 percent of GDP, amounting to 16 billion U.S. dollars. The government has planned to increase it to 28 billion dollars by 2030, which, according to Jayasundara, requires diversifying the country's export product basket.
She noted that the manufacturing sector contributed 16.2 percent to the industrial sector in 2023, and that the government has planned to increase it to at least 20 percent by 2030.
In 2023, land allocated for industries made up about 0.01 percent of Sri Lanka's total land area. The government has planned to expand it to 1 percent by 2030, as the international standard is around 3 percent, Jayasundara said.
The government believed that developing industries is key to sustainable economic development. ■
