Investors, corporate leaders continue with investments, expansions

COLOMBO: Leading investors in Sri Lanka and corporate leaders said they are undeterred by the recent incidents in Trincomalee and Colombo and are planning to go ahead with their planned investments and expansions.

The community expressed their commitments at a media briefing chaired by Enterprise Development and Investment Promotion Minister Rohitha Bogollagama at his Ministry on Thursday.

Views expressed by the business leaders during the briefing:

Susantha Ratnayaka, Chairman, JKH John Keells Holdings: "We are encouraged by the response and the action taken by the Government. They have kept us informed as an when able and substantiated what they said with facts. This is encouraging.

We are quite a resilient private sector we have had set backs. We are carrying on with all our investment plans which are quite substantial in the next two years."

Deva Rodrigo, Chairman, Ceylon Chamber of Commerce: "The violent was confined to Trincomalee and did not spread to the rest of the country and things have come back to normal within the last few days.

These are the confidence factors to me and I believe if they rated the country down due to this events, they should equally very soon rate the country back towards or even above that when they realise that whatever provocative action that took place is not spread beyond Trincomalee and things have come back to normal so fast.

Therefore, I am very confident that investment flows will continue. There might be a little delay people will question is that the right time to go, but sooner we get back to normal they will realise this is a country we are a resilient economy. The business community is very resilient. We are at six percent growth last year."

Udaya Nanayakkara, Chairman, Ceylon Tourist Board: "We have already reached the first quarter target this year. We have in fact exceeded. We are quite confident that this year will be the best year for Sri Lanka tourism.

Events of this nature will certainly send negative vibes down to the foreign countries.

But the actual ground situation is that certain incidents took place in Trincomalee.

The ground situation has come back to normal. The reaction of a responsible Government is also experienced. Now we can see that things are back to normal. So we keep on giving the correct information down the line to the tourism wholesalers and also to the retail community and the consumer."

Dr. Hans Wijesuriya, CEO Dialog Telekom: "The entire infrastructure sector is very bullish. This year we should see large scale expansions and investments in both fixed and mobile communications as well as in other infrastructures in the communicators sector.

As a company which is very much in touch with the social life and communities across all what really strikes us is that despite the small fluctuations in the macro situation.

Civilian life goes on. Citizens are resilient and they get back to business and that is the confidence investors have.

Telekom Malaysia has been here for the last 12 years. We have been here for the last 12 years throughout the worst period. In contrast to that what we see today is a minor fluctuation.

We see terrorism in all parts of the world and it has to be viewed in that context. We are in the final stages of finalising a US $ 150 million investment. Chairman of Telekom Malaysia will be here shortly to finalise this."

Anil Hirdaramani, Managing Director, Hirdaramani Group: "The order books are looking good. Most of the domestic fabric mills are fully booked up. I think that encourages people to come in and invest in new fabric mills because obviously there is an urgent need for that. We look forward to a successful year."

Tang, Prima Ceylon Ltd: "We are not deterred by the recent incidents. The business is on going. Our operations are on going in Trincomalee. We are still committed to our plan of investment continuing in this country. We have been in Trincomalee since 1977. Our estimated investment for expansions is US $ 30 million."

Sri Lanka High Commissioner in London, Kshenuka Seneviratna: "There have been some reports that have been going out. We have been having a dialogue with BBC from here also.

We continue to have this dialogue with them. We are maintaining close relations with tour operators and also following the travel advisory.

The travel advisories of UK hasn't really changed overall since January this year. It continues to maintain that it recommends only but essential travel to the North and East and on the section dealings with tourism there is a new paragraph which has reference to the April 25 incident."

Abbas Aesufally, Hemas Holdings: "UK tour operators Straus Plc is operating on a charter basis commencing on May 10. This is the first time that charters come in from Manchester directly to Sri Lanka.

Over 75 per cent occupancies were sold for the whole season two weeks ago. This is an excellent result in attractiveness of Sri Lanka as a tourist destination in UK market.

The UK market is showing high growth rates and supported by both the Tourist Board and the High Commissioner in London. I think it is certainly going to help in the interest and investments in the sector. They have already announced increasing the frequencies from fortnightly basis to weekly basis from February 2007."

Ministry Secretary Thosapala Hewage, Sri Lanka Peace Secretariat Head Palitha Kohona, Sri Lanka High Commissioner in London Khsenuka Seneviratna, Chairman/DG, BOI, Professor Lakshman R. Watawala, Ceylon Tourist Board Chairman Udaya Nanayakkara and business leaders and investors were present.