Malaysia to strengthen business ties with Lanka

As Malaysian private sector investments in Sri Lanka topped US $ 1.5 billion, the country's biggest Foreign Direct Investment partner called for stronger business and investment cooperation in Colombo.

"Sri Lanka has shown strong economic progress. We like to see closer cooperation at business-to-business and investment levels.

We want a strong Sri Lankan trade delegation to Malaysia with across the board representation of all the important investment sectors," said President, Federation of Malaysian-Sri Lankan Organisation (FOMSO) Kulasegaran Sabaratnam when he paid a courtesy call on Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen in Colombo last week.

Sabaratnam who was on a six-day to Colombo was accompanied by a 28-member Malaysian business team.

Despite having only 22 investment projects in Sri Lanka (under Sections S 16 and S 17 of the BOI), Malaysia is the topmost FDI investor country in Sri Lanka with investments totalling $ 1.5 billion, surpassing all other global FDI partners.

The top two Malaysian investors in Sri Lanka are Axiata Group Berhad (through the telecom giant Dialog Axiata) and the Merbok Group (through Merbok MDF Lanka).

Dialog Axiata's investment in Sri Lanka alone has surpassed $ 1 billion.

According to Commerce Department sources, in 2013, bilateral trade between the two countries stood at $ 577.66 million of which exports from Sri Lanka were $44.92 million while imports levelled at $532.74 million.

Natural rubber the main export to Malaysia contributed 31% of total exports followed by apparel (30%) and tea (9%).