COLOMBO, July 20 (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lankan government has launched a five-year National Export Strategy (NES) to boost foreign investments, foreign exchange earnings and employment, local media reported Friday.

Addressing the launch of the five-year NES strategy, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said the key objective of the NES was to increase the capacity of the local export sector, improve trade performance and competitiveness and ensure different sectors of the economy evolved to grab a share of the global market in reaching the government's goal of 28 billion U.S. dollars in export revenue by 2022.

Insisting that the NES was an important element in strengthening the economic growth of Sri Lanka, the Prime Minister noted that government officials would meet exporters every six months to discuss and monitor the implementation progress.

"These are the policies we are following to ensure that the people in this country have better jobs, better incomes, better housing, better education and better healthcare," Wickremesinghe said.

"You can't have all these without money and you can't have money if you don't earn your foreign exchange," he added.

Wickremesinghe further emphasized that all the developed economies of Asia had become successful today by becoming export economies, particularly South Korea, Singapore and Vietnam.

The Prime Minister also highlighted on the recent free trade agreement (FTA) signed between Sri Lanka and Singapore, and said the government was also seeking to deepen trade relations with other economies in the region, including China, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.