The Sri Lankan government is finalising the framework of the Economic and Technology Agreement (ETCA), to be signed with India next May, by consulting with the public and the private sector.

A top level Sri Lankan official delegation will visit India to attend a meeting in New Delhi to discuss modalities of the proposed agreement that will cover investment and services, official sources told The Sunday Times, adding that this agreement was completely different from the earlier proposed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA), which was opposed by many organisations in the south.

However the ETCA is also being opposed, with several trade unions planning a strike in the new year, which will also be targeted at the new agreement, alongside grievances about the recent budget.

The Sri Lankan government will resubmit its applications to regain the EU's GSP+ trade concessions, which were withdrawn over its human rights record/

International Development Minister Malik Samarawickrama told textile industry representatives earlier this month that the EU's ban on fisheries exports will be removed, which would pave the way to regaining GSP+, The Sunday Times reported.

In November the EU's ambassador to Sri Lanka, David Daly said that the reinstatement of the GSP+ benefits were further away than the government claimed, a few days after Mr Samarawickrama told parliament that the concessions would be reinstated in June 2016.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe in June claimed GSP+ would be granted after the Human Rights Council last September.

Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena called for the organisers of an Enrique Iglesias concert to be “whipped with toxic stingray tails”, calling the behaviour of concert goers “uncivilised”.

Addressing a public meeting in Amparai, Mr Sirisena was outraged by reports that female fans at the concert had thrown undergarments at the 40 year old singer, while one fan got on stage and kissed him.

Mr Sirisena said that this type of behaviour would have usually elicited violence from locals towards the female fans, but he felt in this instance it was the organisers who deserved the beating.