FDI inflows up $ 853 million from January - June 2014

by Uditha Kumarasinghe

The Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows to Sri Lanka from January to June 2014 were US$ 853 million, a 58 percent increase compared to US$ 540 million during the corresponding period in 2013.

According to the "Progress Review 2014 and the Way Forward" presented by Investment Promotion Minister Lakshman Yapa Abeywardena in Parliament during the committee stage debate on his Ministry on Wednesday said the total cumulative FDI inflow to Sri Lanka from 1978 to the first half of 2014 were US$ 10,771 million. Of the total FDI inflows, 74 percent (US$ 7,993 million) had been received from 2006 to the first half of 2014.

Of the total US$ 853 million FDI inflows received from January to June this year, 81.6 percent (US$ 696 million) were for the infrastructure and services sector which includes tourism, telephone and telecommunication, housing and property development and Airline services. In addition, 17.8 percent was for the manufacturing sector while the remaining 0.5 percent was for the agriculture sector.

The report said that the UK was the largest source of FDI inflows in the first half of 2014 with US$ 368 million (43 percent), followed by China (US$ 132 million, 16 percent), Netherlands (US$ 78 million, 9 percent), Mauritius (US$ 66 million, 8 percent), Singapore (US$ 50 million, 6 percent), USA (US$ 24 million, 3 percent), India (US$ 22 million, 3 percent), Luxembourg (US$ 14 million, 2 percent), Australia (US$ 13 million, 2 percent) and Canada (US$ 12 million, 1 percent).