Investor confidence underlined :

US $ 920 m highest ever FDI recorded

by Shirajiv SIRIMANE

Sri Lanka secured over US $ 920 million Foreign Direct Investments (FDI) to the country until mid December this year. This is the highest ever FDI recorded in the country.

Chairman, Board of Investment (BOI) Dhammika Perera said that this target was achieved despite a war in the country.

"In addition there is a 52 percent drop in global investments due to economic recession and this figure is praiseworthy and clearly underlines investor confidence to the country," he said.

Perera said that their target was to achieve one billion US dollars this year. "More than the war it was the global economic downturn that prevented us from reaching that goal,"he said.

However with the war ending and global meltdown on the decline, Sri Lanka would be able to easily reach that magic US$ one billion mark by the third quarter of the year. In 2004 FDI to Sri Lanka was US $ 234 million and it increased to $287 million the following year.

This figure reached $603 million in 2006, after President Mahinda Rajapaksa was elected and then it maintained a steady progress mainly due to political stability in the country. In 2007 it was $734 million and last year the figure increased to US $ 888 million. Speaking to the Sunday Observer at the ground breaking ceremony of the Hambantota international airport he said that investors were happy with the infrastructure being provided by the government.

Hambantota is an area that was shunned by both foreign and local investors as it lacked basic infrastructure.

However with the new Port mainly targeting Cargo, international airport, new rail link to Colombo, highways and guarantees of uninterrupted power supply and water, Hambantota district would be a major attraction to investors.

He said that the introduction of one day approval for projects by the BoI was welcomed by the entrepreneurs. When an investor signs an agreement with the BOI, the provisions embodied in the agreement remains valid for the life of the enterprise. Successive Governments cannot change these provisions, ensuring a degree of stability that few other countries can offer or match.

Under the "Mahinda Chinthana" program the Government launched a new scheme called "Nipayum Sri Lanka" (the 300 Enterprises Program) with the purpose of taking development to rural areas outside Colombo and Gampaha districts.