BOI garment and textile exports top $ 3,100m

by Uditha Kumarasinghe

The export revenue from projects approved by the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI) from January to June 2012 was US$ 3,110 million, 63 percent of the total export revenue.

According to the performance report 2012 issued by the Economic Development Ministry, from January to June this year, the export revenue earned by textiles and garments amounted to 61 percent of the total export revenue. In addition the export revenue on chemicals, petroleum, coal and food processing amounted to 15.6 percent and 5.4 percent.

The enterprises approved by the BOI made a significant contribution to the national economy. According to the latest statistics by the Central Bank, of the total export revenue of US$ 4,965 million in the first half of 2012, US$ 3,110 million have been earned by projects approved by the BOI - 63 percent of the total export revenue, the report said.

During the first half of 2012, the contribution to industrial exports through the BOI was 81 percent while the biggest contribution had been from textiles and garments. The export revenue from textiles and garments and manufacturing fields is 96 percent and 63 percent.

New investment zones such as Sampur- Heavy Industrial City of US$ 4,000 million investment, tourist activities related zone at Mullativu, Mirijjawila- investment of US$ 300 million, Suriyawewa Investment Promotion Zone and Welikanda Agricultural Zone of US$ 140 million investment have been identified.

Steps will be taken to reconstruct an appropriate incentive package on the basis of prioritized fields after mitigating the existing incentive package to fulfil the main strategies for investment from 2012 to 2015. A new strategy centered around prioritised fields for providing a better service to the investors will be set up. Ten Export Processing Zones and two Industrial Parks will also be modernised.