What Sri Lanka Can Learn From Andhra Pradesh: Lessons from the Cll Partnership Summit in Visakhapatnam

WHEN the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce led a Sri Lankan business delegation to India’s 30th CII Partnership Summit (organised jointly by Confederation of Indian Industries and Govt of Andra Pradesh, under theme of Technology, Trust, and Trade: Navigating the New Geoeconomic Order) in Visakhapatnam, the goal was simple: understand where India is heading and identify how Sri Lanka can benefit by integrating into the growth rather than be swept aside by it.

- By Lasantha Somaratne, CFA, FRM

What the delegation witnessed in Andhra Pradesh was instructive, timely, and relevant to Sri Lanka’s own development challenges. (You can access CII Partnership summit details here: THE CII PARTNERSHIP SUMMIT 2025)

India is becoming a major force in global economic growth. The IMF projects India to remain one of the world’s fastest-growing large economies through the next decade. If Sri Lanka wants to secure its place in the new regional order, it must understand how key Indian states are shaping their economic futures. Andhra Pradesh offered one of the clearest examples at the Summit.

This is not about politics. It is about policy, execution, and how a state can transform itself by thinking long-term and acting with discipline.

Andhra Pradesh's coastal advantage: Strategy, not luck

Andra Pradesh Government has selected Visakhapatnam as the host city for the Summit. Andhra Pradesh has India’s second longest coastline at 974 km and is already the country’s number two maritime cargo-handling state, moving close to 104 MMT annually, which is almost 15% of all cargo handled in India. As the State Government presented, the model was clear. Ports are not isolated assets. They are part of integrated economic corridors linking logistics, industrial clusters, technology parks, and export zones.

Sri Lanka, with Colombo, Trincomalee, and Hambantota, should be even better positioned. But we lack the same level of integration and forward thinking. The lesson from Andhra Pradesh is straightforward: a port becomes economically powerful when it is embedded in a larger strategy, not when it stands alone.

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