Overseas Realty to venture into new city

by Elmo Leonard

Overseas Realty Ltd, the Echelon Square, Colombo based twin-tower owning company from Singapore, will begin their second project, here, a new city to be constructed on the property of the elapsed Wellawatte Spinning and Weaving Mills, Colombo 6.

Chairman, Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI) Lakshman Watawala also said that another Singaporean company, the B. P. de Silva group, with Sri Lankan connections, will partner in setting up a gem and jewellery authority to be housed in Ratnapura.

Watawala was answering queries whether the recent Central Bank organised, investment forum held in Singapore was a success.

The Malaysian company, Dialog Telekom will invest $150 million into the telecom sector. There will be further investment in petroleum refining, in Trincomalee. The Prima people, from Singapore, owners of Ceylon Grain Elevators and Three Acre Farms will diversify their investments. Besides, other Singaporean and Malaysian investors will come into Sri Lanka, Watawala said. To accommodate such investment, more export processing zones will be set up in the island.

The question of tax holidays of 15 years, given to foreign investors and land at lower cost than available to local companies, came into focus.

The granting of tax holidays was not the only yardstick for investment into a country, there being other factors, such as security, location, ease of export, capital availability and labour accord, Watawala said in answer to questions raised at a monthly forum for public-private sector dialogue, organised by the Small and Medium Enterprise Developers (SMED), a project of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Sri Lanka (FCCISL) and Fredrick Naumann Stiftung.

The BOI will make a final statement on the status on the Indian built, Apollo Hospital, whose majority shares are now held by Sri Lanka Insurance, Watawala said.

Minister of Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion Rohitha Bogollagama, spoke on, 'Making Sri Lankan Business globally competitive the role of government,' as part of this extended program, termed, `Key Person's Forum.'

The minister said that his portfolio conformed to the topic in review. In the past two decades, having played a role in both the private and public sector, the minister knew that the multinationals were vying for better and better conditions. At the same time, the government was addressing the issues of making the island more competitive.

The private and public sector were both trying to make things happen. The present legal system may not be the best for making Sri Lanka competitive for investors, but such aspects were being looked into.

Making Sri Lanka competitive had two parts, foreign investment and exports. Foreign investment is the concern of the BOI, while exports, is the role of the Sri Lanka Export Development Board (EDB).

The EDB was busy finding markets for products and directing exporters to turn out products which has appeal in foreign markets, minister Bogollagama said.