Sri Lanka is to establish a new international trade office to synergize the country's external trade, the President's Media Division (PMD) said on Thursday.

The International Trade Office (ITO) is to be established on the directions of President Ranil Wickremesinghe, the PMD said in a statement.

"The government has decided to reorganize the existing conventional institutional set-up and newly establish the International Trade Office (ITO) to interconnect all the relevant institutions and synergize their work to obtain maximum output from the external trade sector to the national economy," the PMD said.

The move comes as Sri Lanka looks to rebuild its economy which hit rock bottom this year.

"Realizing the untapped economic potential of trade and investment via linking with regional and global value chains is a major element of the government's economic revival program," the PMD said.

The ITO will initially be established under the Ministry of Finance and subsequently, it will be amalgamated into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to implement Sri Lanka's foreign trade development policy across the world with enhanced and effective coordination.

The PMD said that the ITO will look to operationalize the Free Trade Agreement between Sri Lanka and Singapore which entered into force in May 2018.