Stable economic and political climate:

Investment Promotion Ministry targets $2b in FDIs in 2013

by Uditha Kumarasinghe

The Investment Promotion Ministry hopes to attract US$ 2 billion in Foreign Direct Investments (FDIs) to Sri Lanka from European and Asian countries this year.

Many foreign countries such as Germany, Australia, Canada and France have already pledged to invest in Sri Lanka due to the stable economic and political atmosphere prevailing in the country, Investment Promotion Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena told the Sunday Observer yesterday.

At present, the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka (BOI) is signing agreements with foreign investors to launch various projects in Sri Lanka.

These flagship projects to be set up in Sri Lanka includes an US$ 600 million investment by the Crown Group for a joint venture mixed development while another US$ 640 million investment will be by local and foreign companies.

In addition, several small scale projects will be launched including a US$ 140 million investment for a foreign university and a US$ 300 million investment by a Korean project, the Minister said.

Minister Abeywardena said when the ministry approves these projects there will be FDI inflows into the country. The Ministry has attracted US$ 218 million in FDIs to the country from January to April this year.

He said the Government led by President Mahinda Rajpaksa has attracted the highest FDI inflow into the country from 2006-2012. All former Governments from 1978 to 1994 had brought only US$ 1,026 million in FDIs.

The FDI inflow from 1995 to 2005 amounted to only US$ 1,752 million. But the UPFA Government from 2006 up to the third quarter of 2012 had brought US$ 5,026 million in FDIs to the country, a 64 percent increase compared to the past FDI inflow.