FDI to exceed US $ 2b by year end

by Naalir Jamaldeen

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) worth US$ 2.5 billion is expected by the end of this year. The FDI inflow is expected to increase to US$ 5,000 million by 2016, Investment Promotion Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena told the media in Colombo last week.

During the past six months FDI inflow was US 817 million, an increase of 51 percent compared to the corresponding period of the previous year.

He said that the Government has succeeded in attracting more FDI. “We received US$ 229 million FDI last year and it increased by US$ 472 million this year. Steps have been taken increase the value of our economy to US$ 100 billion by 2016”, the Minister said.

The Government plans to implement at least five projects to address the unemployment problem in villages.

There are 16,000 vacancies in the investment zones for blue collar jobs, he said.

“We have succeeded in getting a large amount of FDI overcoming all challenges,” Minister Abeywardena said. He said that the Shangri-La hotel project developers have made a major part of its payments. They paid US$ 10 million within the past few months.

The Krrish project officials have also deposited US$ 0.5 million in the past two months.

In 2002, the world received US$ 600 billion in FDI. Over 71 percent of the FDI has been received by the developed countries. The developing economies received less than 27 percent of FDI.

In 2013, the world received US$ 1,460 billion in FDI, of which 57 percent was received by developing economies such as Sri Lanka. The developed economies received 37 percent of FDI. The inflow of FDI to transition economies has increased from 2 to 29 percent, a BOI official said.

Zone wise, a major portion of FDI has been received by developing countries in Asia, he said.

Sri Lanka received 30 percent, Latin America 32 percent, North America 22 percent, Europe 16 percent and other countries 10 percent. Sri Lanka has received US$ 7.5 billion over the past eight years, he said.