COLOMBO, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) -- The Sri Lankan government is aiming to achieve a national export target of 23 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, having encouraged regional entrepreneurs to enter the export market, local media reported here Tuesday.

Development Strategies and International Trade Minister, Malik Samarawickrama, said the island's Export Development Board was exploring market opportunities for new products from regional resources, utilizing the Free Trade Agreements and the European GSP plus trade concessions.

Deputy Minister of Development Strategies and International Trade, Nalin Bandara, said that the government will commence several major projects this year to achieve its export earnings goal.

He pointed out that boosting the country's investments would be the only way to achieve the export target, insisting that export-oriented industries and foreign direct investments (FDI) would help to expand the export earnings of the county.

"In 2018, Sri Lanka recorded 2.38 billion U.S. dollars in FDI. In 2017, we were only able to draw 1.7 billion U.S. dollars worth of FDI, therefore, comparing to 2017, last year was a 39 percent increase," Bandara said.

He noted that the government expects to attract 3 billion U.S. dollars in FDI this year.