COLOMBO, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lanka is on course to reach the 2018 export target of 17.5 billion U.S. dollars set up by the government as the island country had already achieved 60 percent of that target by the end of July, chairperson of Sri Lanka's Export Development Board, Indira Malwatte said on Wednesday.

Speaking at the Messe Frankfurt Exhibition event held in Colombo, Indira said the government had set up an export target of 20 billion U.S. dollars in revenue for 2019 and 28 billion dollars for 2020 and these targets were now falling in line as achievable.

"Just like everybody united to defeat terrorism, today people must rally round the exporters and give them maximum assistance as exports and FDIs are the key to economic growth," she said.

She further said the proposed Free Trade Agreement between China and Sri Lanka would be advantageous to both countries as it would help attract more Chinese investors to Sri Lanka.