'Lanka on unprecedented growth path'

By Sanjeevi Jayasuriya

Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal said Sri Lanka has become one of the fastest growing economies in the world during the past five years. The country has invested $ 3 billion in the North, re-building the province which was way behind. The country strives to maintain sustainable growth and is open for business on a continuous basis. He was speaking at the opening of the Islamic Finance News Road Show 2013 in Colombo last week.

Sri Lanka’s effort to promote Islamic banking is taking effect as new regulations and practices which are an important segment of the learning process in taking the industry forward, he said.

“We have a full-fledged Islamic Sharia Bank with four window units and four finance companies have Islamic banking functions.

It is interesting to note how these features will affect and fit in Sri Lanka’s development as Sri Lanka is on an unprecedented growth path,” Cabraal said.

“Macro fundamentals have not been neglected as Sri Lanka needs to have sound macro fundamentals and we are committed to fulfilling it.

Things are happening and trends taking place continuously modifying the environment to accommodate changes. Sri Lanka still has to attract investments from outside the country to sustain eight percent growth as the savings within the country is not sufficient,” he said.

“We plan to achieve eight percent growth in a sustainable manner and new finances, new investments needs to come in. Islamic finance has massive opportunities in the country. We need to use this opportunity and open new channels for investments to come in different currencies from countries,” the Governor said.

“It is necessary to take a cue from Malaysia as there is great similarity in the progress made by Malaysia during the past 20 years. We should have planted a growth tree 20 year’s ago,” Cabraal said.

The event was the second Islamic Finance News Road show to attract FDIs and to develop the Islamic financial market in Sri Lanka. The road show brought together all stakeholders to debate issues, challenges and the way forward.