Tehran Times reported that Iranian private sector company SANIR will implement a project worth USD 108 million in Sri Lanka aimed to provide electricity to around one thousand villages in the country.
According to Sri Lanka’s Power and Energy Ministry’s website, the project, dubbed as RE8, is to serve remote areas as well as un electrified gap areas in between already electrified areas. The project is expected to bring benefits to about 180,000 rural households.
On December 11th, Sri Lankan Industry and Commerce Minister Mr Rishad Bathiyutheen met with Iranian Industry, Mine and Mr Mehdi Ghazanfari minister of Trade in Tehran, discussing ways to diversify and expand industrial and trade ties.
Mr Ghazanfari said that the value of bilateral trade stands at USD 1.6 billion annually.
Mr Susil Premjayanth petroleum minister of Sri Lankan in October said that US sanctions against Iran had compelled Sri Lanka to pay an additional sum of USD 1.2 billion for the import of crude oil and refined oil. The country’s oil bill had reached USD 5 billion by now.
However, the government had made arrangements to purchase crude from Saudi Arabia and other oil producing nations and orders had been placed for 135,000 million tonne of light crude and another 80,000 million tonne in the open market.
