Sri Lanka’s total exports for January to April 2026 are estimated at $ 5,784.38 million, a 4.3% increase over the same period in 2025. Amidst such continuous export growth, the Government has launched its new five-year roadmap for the export sector – the National Export Development Plan (NEDP) 2026–2030 – as the country’s main framework for export-led growth and economic diversification.
The plan targets $ 36 billion in total exports by 2030, made up of $ 28 billion in merchandise exports and just over $ 8 billion in services, with exports expected to reach 14–15% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by the end of the decade.
It identifies eight priority sectors, including auto components, mineral and rubber-based industries, marine products, spices and concentrates, digital products and services, electrical and electronic components, and processed food and beverages.
These are supported by enablers covering trade logistics and hub operations; trade facilitation; trade finance and the investment climate; trade promotion and market links; quality and standards including Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG); and skills and entrepreneurship.
Stakeholders have welcomed the roadmap while highlighting the need for effective implementation, noting the effort required to achieve the targets and institutional capabilities in facilitation.
NEDP actions and goals
At the official launch of the NEDP, Government stakeholders highlighted the significance of the plan and its goals.
Speaking at the launch, Deputy Minister of Finance and Planning Anil Jayantha Fernando noted that the real measure of international trade success was whether Sri Lanka was trading sustainably and making full use of its capacity.
He noted how little the export composition had changed in three decades, noting that merchandise exports in the 1990s and in 2020 were more or less the same, highlighting the significance of diversification of products and markets alongside global and technological change.
One niche aspect that Sri Lanka can utilise going forward, highlighted by the Deputy Minister as an area to establish a competitive edge, is the country’s rich human resource and labour capacity. He noted this was currently supported by labour law reforms, expert committees, and the revived National Labour Advisory Council.
Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development Sunil Handunnetti noted the country’s need to rise in the value chain and highlighted the Government’s initiatives to support such growth collectively across various industries by elevating the country’s global position.
He also highlighted the Government’s commitment to make headway in other initiatives required to ensure successful implementation of the plan, including digitalisation efforts, efforts to establish the National Single Window within this year, and attempts to establish an investment facilitation committee, among others.
Meanwhile, in a panel discussion that followed titled ‘Headwinds and Horizons: Operationalising the NEDP for Sri Lanka’s Exporters,’ panelist Export Development Board (EDB) Chairman Mangala Wijesinghe outlined the thinking behind the plan. He stated that the EDB had spent several months consulting exporters, regional entrepreneurs, and chambers before finalising the document.
The EDB Chairman further pointed out that exports had hovered in the $ 14–15 billion range for roughly a decade. He described three objectives in the plan to expand this growth: improving trade competitiveness, expanding regional and global market links, and supporting sustainable growth, with its main focus being implementation through the revived National Export Development Council of Ministers, chaired by the President, and a new monitoring unit within a restructured EDB reviewing progress weekly and monthly with private sector input, in line with relevant Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).
Wijesinghe specifically noted the gap between the Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) sector’s share of export earnings – below 10% – and its much larger share of the broader economy as one reason the plan gave specific attention to SME readiness.
One key question that has been constantly raised by many regarding the export targets is its ambitious goal of achieving $ 36 billion by 2030, which would require a significantly higher annual growth rate in the years to come.
Commenting on this concern at the panel discussion, Deputy Minister of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development Chathuranga Abeysinghe explained measures needed to ensure its materialisation. Among the efforts were two key pathways, namely, bringing in raw material to expand supply for existing exporters, since local raw material capacity is limited, and attracting the right Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to access markets Sri Lanka does not yet reach.
Abeysinghe noted that existing access to Europe and the United States would not be sufficient on its own, naming growing markets such as East Asia, Africa, India, and the Middle East as the markets to enter next.
What the industry hopes for
Meanwhile, several industry bodies highlighted their expectations from the plan, noting certain concerns that must be addressed moving forward.
National Chamber of Exporters (NCE) Secretary General and Chief Executive Officer Shiham Marikar said that the chamber had worked closely with the EDB in formulating the NEDP.
“We are glad that the EDB has initiated the plan, as Sri Lanka needs a strategy, especially to achieve the export targets set for the sector. All cross-cutting concerns related to all sectors were discussed when formulating this plan, with consultations from sector-specific industries and chambers,” he said.
He highlighted the industry’s focus on what would come next, especially at the implementation stage. According to him, the industry’s expectation is the engagement of the private sector by the EDB and the ministry in implementation and close monitoring.
Meanwhile, Joint Apparel Association Forum Sri Lanka (JAAFSL) Secretary General Yohan Lawrence noted that the apparel industry’s request had always remained the same: better access to markets and a competitive landscape to operate within in terms of cost of doing business and cost of operation.
Free Trade Zone Manufacturers’ Association (FTZMA) Chairman Dhammika Fernando also stated that the industry’s most pressing need was market and product diversification.
“The burning requirements of the industry is market diversification and product diversification. If the NEDP has provisions for encouraging and incentivising these, it would be ideal,” he said.
Discussing the country’s traditional export products such as apparel, he noted that when considering Sri Lanka’s resource and human resource capacities, the country could not necessarily match many regional competitors in scale but could instead move into higher-value tech products.
Fernando also noted the need to expand focus on emerging markets such as the mineral industry, especially considering Sri Lanka’s deposits of silica and graphite. He added that services exports, including IT and business process outsourcing, also deserved more attention and encouragement given the country’s pool of software talent.
Meanwhile, Ceylon National Chamber of Industries (CNCI) Chairman Pradeep Kahawalage raised a string of operational concerns affecting the industry that must be looked into, considering the dynamics across local and export sectors.
For example, the Government’s recent removal of Commodity Export Subsidy Scheme (CESS) charges on imports impacts local manufacturers competing with cheaper goods. Thus, he noted the need for targeted support for certain local industries, such as electronics and electrical manufacturers, to tap into the export market.
On trade facilitation, Kahawalage noted the need for streamlined digitisation. He also noted the limited reach of Sri Lanka’s free trade agreements, and called for renewed funding to help SMEs obtain certification requirements such as ISO and Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP).
New focus areas and implementation concerns
Prior to the recently introduced plan, Sri Lanka implemented the National Export Strategy (NES) for 2018–2022, which targeted reaching $ 28 billion in exports by 2022. However, the plan ultimately achieved only around $ 16 billion due to pandemic-related disruptions and macroeconomic shocks.
In this light, University of Colombo (UOC) Department of Economics Professor Priyanga Dunusinghe provided a comparative analysis of the current plan with the 2018–2022 plan. He noted that the 2026–2030 plan built on the earlier one, leaning into logistics and positioning the country as a knowledge-intensive and logistics-focused export hub.
In the current plan, he noted a stronger emphasis on product and market diversification, sustainability standards for exporters and SMEs, a financing pillar built around public-private partnerships, and a new focus on auto components in line with the regional shift towards electric vehicles, including rubber-based parts. The new plan, he noted, also focused more heavily on digital channels for trade promotion in place of trade fairs and embassy-based outreach.
“Another positive aspect is the focus given to skill development, as the economy and the export sector in particular grapple with a skill gap. They have identified the significance of skill improvement,” he said.
At the same time, Prof. Dunusinghe commented on the target set for 2030. He noted that at present, total exports of goods and services amounted to approximately $ 17.25 billion. To reach $ 36 billion by 2030, the country requires 10–12% growth a year, but the long-term export growth rate thus far has been around 5–6%, which highlights the extent of the growth needed.
One concern he raised was institutional capacity, especially in implementation, as the plan rests mainly on the EDB. He also argued that reaching the higher growth target would require FDI that local capital alone could not supply, especially in sectors like auto parts that needed both capital and certification standards Sri Lankan manufacturers did not yet hold.
He also noted that investors may not have a clear sense of the Government’s overall direction on trade and investment, whether towards a more open, liberalised economy or one that mixed import substitution with limited export promotion.
Moreover, Prof. Dunusinghe pointed to certain research concerns underpinning the document. “I must highlight that there is a lack of substantive citations and significant references, which says a great deal about the level of seriousness with which the document has been put together,” he said.
Overall, he noted the plan’s outlook was positive, especially as it sets out a clear baseline, intended improvements, incentives for promoting exports, and lines of responsibility for each target. However, he highlighted the gap between ambition and implementation that must be addressed alongside this, in order for the plan to be successful.